Does anyone know if any companies are working on an new Nscale sound engines? Especially smaller engines? I know these are hard to work with because of size but if these smaller engines can be “bashed” to put sound in them why cant companies make them factory installed? Think there would be a big market for them. The Paragon 2 system by BL is such a nice system even in Nscale. Decoders are getting smaller and speakers are getting smaller and better sounding all the time.
Some things scale down well, Darrel. Sound isn’t one of them. While the decoders may shrink in size because of the availability of smaller components - generally speaking - the smaller you make a speaker; the worse it’s going to sound. To produce good-quality sound, a speaker must move air. Small speakers are not able to do that. You can’t fight physics.
On another aspect. Trying to outfit an N-scale locomotive with a speaker and decoder will - more than likely - require the need to remove a fair amount of the chassis to get it to all fit under the hood. Unfortunately, when you start removing weight, you can’t pull as much cargo.
A way around that is to have dummy locomotives which are sound-only. This requires you to MU locomotives together in order to get both tractive power and sound. As you increase in scale, this becomes less and less an issue because of speaker size and weight of the chassis.
Another avenue is to have a sound system underneath your layout that can detect where your locomotives are on your layout and adjust the volume of the sound accordingly. For small scales like N and Z, this may be the most practical way to have sound for your locomotives.
Tom
even if they are, I’m not going to bother with DCC ever. I understand it’s too early to make this choice, but I feel that intensely complicated wiring, and DC is a better way for me to go at least in N. soon I will do both HO & N just gotta get me a pair of HO locos I’ve been eyeballing for some time. 
Actually, Gary, wiring for either DC or DCC can be as easy or as complicated as you want it to be.
I ran my first DCC layout (and still my current) with only two wires. Worked great. Couldn’t have been any easier. Now that I’ve added turnouts with live frogs (so that I don’t have any stalling issues with my smaller switchers), it’s a little more complicated but I would have had to do the same if I were using DC.
So, there are good and legitimate reasons for staying with DC. Complicated wiring shouldn’t be a determining factor for going with either DC or DCC.
Tom
oh heh heh… my bad. I was planning on having my layout trackage split up into multiple blocks the mains would be separate, the sidings would be separate, and split into smaller pieces. so that way I could wheel a passenger or freight that needs a helper to get over the pass up to the isolated section.
switch section 1 section 2 section 3 switch
Well, if you are going to use helper service, Gary, DCC makes more sense to me, as you can operate both locomotives independently from one another. Your choice though…
Tom
I never do things the easy way [:P] I’d switch but a good part of my fleet is non dcc ready. most of my loco’s are pretty well speed matched.
TCS is entering the sound decoder market this year. Their “WOWsound” line is debuting this Spring for steam locos, and by summer they’ll have diesel sound decoders. Visit their website for more details.
I myself am new to DCC and in N scale. I know our locos lack bass frequencies, but I don’t care; I love it when I hear the bell or control the horn or hear the prime mover go up in pitch as I up the throttle.