Not sure which forum to post this, but I’ll try here. I recently purchased a Symphony 77 off-train sound system by MRC. Here are my views on this product. The diesel idle sound is fine, a nice EMD 567C sound. The sounds from higher revs are not believable. The compressor sound is OK. Then there are the diesel horn sounds. Only one blat sound is believable. The others are unbelievably screechy and squawky. There are nice 3-chime and 5-chime Nathan and Leslie horns out there to record but MRC missed them. The dynamic brake - have you ever stood trackside as a train came downgrade under dynamic brake - this product misses the whine of the blowers. The diesel bell - it’s not a click-ding sound as on the prototype, just a ding ding. In the steam locomotive sounds, the bell is OK. The steam chuff - who ever heard of a steam locomotive with an 8-notch throttle? Unbelievable! The “chuff” itself isn’t much, either. The “coal” button - who ever heard of loading coal in two seconds? Bah, humbug, and it sounds like ice cubes besides! The steam whistles - one is OK, the others are just not believable. Again, when there are such nice steam whistles out there to record, Buffalo Creek and Gauley, Union Pacific, Milwaukee, Spokane Portland and Seattle, Strasburg, and others that steam up in museums, where did MRC come up with these dogs? Look, if QSI and LokSound can record prototype sounds and put them in a chip, why can’t MRC? The Symphony 77 has a volume control that affects the loudness of the exhaust and bell, but not the horn. So if you fade the sound of the engine, then press the horn sound, the horn plays at full volume, and the effect of a disappearing train is lost. In my opinion, the Symphony 77 system is the most over-hyped, underperforming sound system on the mark
That sounds worse than the MRC Diesel sound box that I use. I hooked it up to a Creative Labs 4 speaker system and it sounds much better, and the volume control effects everything, including the horn.
ooooo.
Ice cubes falling … no… clinking into the coal bunker of the tender…
ooooo…[#oops]
Is there another simple off-train sound system suitable for diesel on the market that is recommended? I would use horn and bell only.
Just till I can afford something better, I did a Google search for “train sounds” and found a bunch for free. Lots of horns and bells. Big deisel loco sounds.Bunch of steam. I downloaded them and burned em to CD. Play them in the train room for background noise.
MRC has these offerings. I recommend the first one:
genmotor,
You didn’t say if you are using DCC or not. If you are, try a Soundtraxx DSD or DSX decoder mounted under the layout with a 4" speaker attached.
I use one of each, steam and diesel, under my BRVRR layout and simply MU them to my non-sound equipped locos. Quite effective on a small layout like mine.
There are pictures of my installations on my website. Push the ‘LAYOUT’ button and scroll down the page. If you are DC then I think you are stuck with one of the ‘sound stations’ made by MRC and others.
I’m looking for something even more simple but more flexible. I want to distribute some momentary switches over the front of the layout that trigger a central horn and bell under the layout. Both systems from Walthers have only one operating panel build in.
Here’s one option. Put this under the layout and hook it up to momentary contact switches at locations of your choice.
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/609-HT100
You can do the same with this, but it’s horn only.
Thanks you. That’s what I’m looking for[:)]