I was recently reading my newest copy of Model Railroader and saw that MRC has a sound decoder that the make specifically for the Atlas “S” units. It comes complete with a speaker right on the decoder. They also say that it is a direct replacement for the PC board that comes on the Atlas units. I understand that there is a “little” filing required on the top weight to make the MRC decoder fit.
Does anyone have any experience with this decoder? How much milling is required? How does the decoder sound and operate as compared to the non-sound NCE ATLS-4 decoder?
The installation is easy and requires minimal filing. Pay attentioin to the drawings and instructions however. The tang is bent from the bottom of the board and makes contact with the upper motor brush holder.
I would set the sound to the lowest volume “0”, on a scale of 0,1,2,3. I like the default “blat” of the default single chime horn.
The sound recording is actually an Alco 244 not a 539T. I am happy with this decoder none the less. Others might not agree.
I don’t think ANY of the brands sound really great when shot with a cheap camcorder (or camera video) and then compressed for a Youtube flash video.[2c]
The MRC sound decoder for the Atlas Alco S-unit is the wrong sound for these units. MRC recorded an Alco 1600Hp 244 V-12 as found in RS-3’s. Alco S-units had either a 660Hp 539 (S-1/S-3) or 1000Hp 539T (S-2/S-4) engine, and these were a straight 6 diesel (the “T” is for turbo). As one can imagine, a V-12 sounds just a tad different than a straight 6.
That aside, these decoders also fail regularly. At my club, 5 out of 8 of these sound decoders had to be sent back to MRC after they failed to either program or run. Having over a 50% failure rate is not good.
Also, because these are MRC decoders, one cannot read what’s programmed into them (considered a must for most DCC users).
One guy I know did replace the onboard speaker with something a little bigger, and reported that it sounded much better.
Personally, I would avoid all MRC decoders. I especially would avoid ones that have the wrong sounds on them for the units they are made for.
The install was very easy. The speaker on my board projected back into the cab so far that it caught on the clear window material. I had remove the window insert and file a notch to avoid having the the board bending down.
The sound is so-so. It is an ALCo burble…just not the right one. Also, mine has what sounds like white noise in burble channel. I sent it back and MRC said that was the way it was supposed to sound. They did a quick turnaround. It is LOUD. Even on the lowest setting it dominates the engine service facility. Perhaps with less gain, the white noise would be less obvious. If I get brave I may try to squeeze a trim pot in the speaker line.
Lack of QC seems to be a problem with MRC from the posts I’ve seen. This is too bad, as they are trying to serve the “drop in” market, which is great for those of us with clumsy fingers.