Has anyone tried to run wires to a speaker in a second unit from a sound equiped leader? Could it be that we only have to buy one sound decoder + an extra speaker and some wire and both units in a consist will produce sound? I think I’ll give it a try this weekend, I have no idea what the outcome will be.
It could work, but be careful, adding speakers can change your total impedance, so figure out what you need to do to keep it at what your decoder is designed for. Also doing this will not make it sound like 2 locomotives, you are just adding another speaker but it will play exactly the same sounds as the first.
Please, keep us up to date on this. It sounds very interesting.
If two units in a consist are the same, IE: SD70, SD40, … etc, they would throtle up and down and sound the same in unisince, no? I think so, I ran alot of trains and when you have multiple units they throttle up and down at the same time. The only drawback would be the bell and whistle sounds if you could tell that they were not all coming from the leader. If it is not a question of output power I think it would work.
It will work, but it won’t be as realistic as having individual sound decoders. Also you have to be careful of the speaker ratings. Two 8-ohm speakers in parallel is 4 ohms - and if the sound decoder is designed to drive an 8 ohm load, you will damage the amplifier running it into only a 4 ohm load. Two 16 ohm speakers would work in this case, but then when you run the single unit alone the amp will be driving into a 16 ohm load. No damage, but the volume will be very low.
–Randy
The throttles would be in sync on an MUed consist, but the diesels themselves would not be. That’s one difference you will hear in the sound.
Another will be that real, out of sync diesels will create phase cancellation effects you won’t be able to recreate.
Both problems could be mitigated by use of a digital delay circuit on the second speaker, but you have to get around the fact that that signal has already been amplified.
I did this successfully with 2 Proto SD7s, with one Soundtraxx decoder powering a speaker in each loco. It works fine, as long as you follow the instructions on using more than one speaker, and is a cheap and effective method of increasing your sound-equipped fleet, although it means both locos have to be permanently MU’d.
Brian
I can’t imagine that this would really add anything. I don’t find loco sound so highly localized that having another speaker 4-6" away would add much unless I had my face within a foot of the locos already.
Plus, for me, the whole point of having two sound locos MU’d is that they’re not in synch, as they would not be in the real world. I think you’d probably have a devil of a time getting multiple MU’d locos in perfect stroke-for-stroke synch in the real world even if you tried.
IMO putting another speaker in a following unit is a complete waste of time. Might as well find room for a second speaker in the leading unit…
Mulitple units sound like MULITIPLE UNITS because the sound goes in and out of sequence.
David
A few months ago, I had some discussions about sound decoders in my F A-B Units. The A is powered and the B is dummy. I was asking advise about adding a sound only decoder in the B in addition to the full function sound decoder in the A unit. The consensus to that discussion was it was not worth the time, money or effort to give the B unit a ‘voice’ of its own.[:(]
Heck, you can find plenty of folks who will tell you sound is (for various reasons) not worth doing at all, in A, B or any unit! There are those who strongly DISlike sound completely.
I’m the polar opposite. I won’t buy a loco unless it’s either coming with sound, or I’m ordering the relevant sound decoder simlutaneously. I can point to locos I’d buy differently or not at all today due to sound requirements (e.g. I own the Mantua articulated logger in the no-tender version… If I were buying it today, I’d get the tender in order to install sound).
My point: It’s all a matter of opinion at the end of the day. speakers here, decoders there, what’s good, bad, indifferent or otherwise. While coming here for input and advice remains a great thing, nobody here has a monopoly on being “right”. What works for one may be poison for the other…
But MHO is that I still see more justification for what you outline here (i.e. “giving the B-unit a voice of its own”) than simply running a second speaker into a secondary MU’d unit…
I am an engineer in the real world, and I used to run a consist of GP40’s and SD40’s regularly in the 80’s and early 90’s, I’ll have to say that unless they were not running right, they all sounded the same screaming by on the out bound inspection. And if there are those who say why would the engines be screaming when an inspection is not suposed to exceed 15 MPH, I would put the throttle in 1 and as soon as the tail end was moving, right to 8 as the manual from GM said. when I hit 13 MPH throttle down until the inspection was completed. I often was the incoming engineer giving the outbound an inspection and I could hear all the GP40’s and SD40’s screaming in unisince. I understand that the SD40’s would make transition at around 27 MPH but other than that they all had the same prime mover and all were GM so unless they were not up to par you could here 1 as equaly as the other.
I have a F-7B dummy unit with a Soundtrax decoder with sound only no motor control that I find very useful & versatile to use in different consists. I like this idea better than 2 locos sharing speakers because the 2 could not easily be split up, etc. This is pretty cost effective because the sound only decoders are only about 1/2 the price of a full blown decoder. Tweet.
I like this idea of a second speaker!
My p2k NYC E7a has sound, it’s dummy B-unit not, and when you hear this set pass by on the track, you immedeately think the b-unit is just deadheading - leaving you to wonder how the A-unit can ever pull those 10 passenger cars at speed…
With another 12 engines waiting for a sound decoder, I like the idea of cutting costs here and there, in fixed las-ups with dummys. For instance, in an ABA freight lash-up, I could have the lead engine have its own sound and the trailing B-A units sharing one sound dec with speakers in each, so that I can use the horn etc only in the lead engine (I run a dogbone-type layout).
But yes for the AB lash-ups, a sound-only dec in the dummy B is attractive too…
rik
I couldn’t agree more with kchronister above - it always astonishes me how some people feel free to offer such hugely blinkered views - some people may not be attracted to the notion, but let’s not just blow others’ ideas out the water.
In my own case, I regularly run the MU’d SD 7s referred to above (two speakers, one sound decoder between them) with a third SD9 which as its own sound and power. The three passing by on the track sound immensely better than two sound-equipped locos and the middle silent one, and the slight delay in notching is VERY noticeable when they increase or decrease speed. And far cheaper than having to install a 3rd sound chip. My layout is only 16x8 and I like to operate “close up”. That’s when I really notice a silent loco in amongst sound-equipped ones. My choice.
As a further example, an ABBA set-up using 4 speakers and 2 sound decoders would sound far better than running with two silent units. And an AB set-up with 1 sound decoder and two speakers is, to my mind, a far better option than having no sound at all in the second unit.
Live and let live. Whatever gets you through the night etc. CHILL! And please don’t offer such dismissive or strident observations to others who may be less confident or knowledgeable, or who just have their own way of getting pleasure from running sound-equipped trains.
Brian
I had no idea you could DCC a dummy. I actually have a use for some of them now! Thanks!
I had the guts removed from my P2K B-unit F2 so that a cheap DSD 100LC from Sountraxx could be installed in the duo. The sound comes only from the second unit, but that does not seem to affect my sense of the effort that both should be putting into moving the consist.
That said, I can recall as a child being down on the rug and getting nose to nose with my toys, and it would certainly be clear, if I were to get within 12 inches of the locos for a good look (if my older eyes could even accommodate that short a focus [B)] which of them had the speaker.