What would be the best sound decoder?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I just picked up a old/new Athearn ho veranda turbine that is dcc ready. Who has the best turbine sound and what speakers should be used?

Dave

2

David,

I know that Loksound has a turbine. I would imagne that TCS Wow! has one, as well. Either one of those would have great sound and give you terrific motor control.

As far as speakers, find out what ohm rating the decoder manufacturer recommends for the speaker. (For Loksound Select, it’s 4, 8, or 16Ω) And I would go with as large a speaker(s) you can install in the tender and/or under the shell.

Tom

3

Diesels normally don’t have much room for speakers, I found some 1” full range speakers on eBay that sound fantastic. They are quite large and 4Ω. I was able to fit a pair of them in my Model Power E7s and a pair fit inside my steam tenders easily.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/331551077718?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

The price is right and the typical delivery is three weeks. I now have 7 pair in service between my articulated locomotive tenders and E7s.

4

Hi Dave:

As Tom mentioned, Loksound has the veranda turbine sound file and they are superb decoders. Loksound offers two versions of their decoders, the V4.0 and the Aux.6 also called the ‘Select’. Both are available in ‘mini’ formats but unless space is really tight I would go with the standard size decoders. The standard sized decoders have a higher amp rating. Unless you plan on doing some really fancy CV modifications go with the Select decoder. Same performance, lower price.

You can actually use 4, 8, or 16 ohm speakers with the Selects. Note that if you are going to use the 4 ohm speakers that Mel recommends you will need to wire them in series. That will give you a total of 8 ohms impedance. If you wire them in parallel you will have a net of 2 ohms and you will likely damage the decoder.

As an alternative, iPhone5 speakers, commonly called ‘sugar cube’ speakers, will fit almost anywhere and they produce great sound. These web pages are worth studying if you are not already familiar with sugar cube speakers:

http://www.sbs4dcc.com/tutorialstipstricks/sugarcubespeakernotes.html

http://www.sbs4dcc.com/tutorialstipstricks/wiringmultispeakers.html

I’m not familiar with the Athearn turbine models but if there is enough room available I would give Mel’s 1" speakers a try. You can make enclosures easily, or you might be able to use part of the shell as an enclosure. The sugar cubes are great where space is limited.

I couldn’t see the turbine sound listed on the TCS site.

Dave

5

Mel:

I just ordered three pairs of the 1" speakers. Thanks for the lead.

I don’t have a specific project in mind right now but I do have E6 and E7 AB sets with a whole bunch of space in the Bs.

Dave

6

Dave,

if you want to experiment further, you could also try this 8 ohm speaker:

http://www.parts-express.com/visaton-bf32-8-ohm-13-full-range-speaker-8-ohm--292-610

It is more expensive, but it is high quality speaker from respected manufacturer. Frequency and impedance response curve can be seen here: http://www.visaton.de/en/industrie/breitband/bf32_8.html

How it sounds with Tsunami and TCS Wow decoder, for example here:

Trix Mikado & Tsunami Medium Steam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebPA7kDFHpY

Trix Big Boy & TCS Wow (version 3)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izQMT84adxg

In both cases, just one speaker was installed and the whole tender is used as a baffle (completely airtight).

Install in BB tender was little tricky due to post going thru the middle of a tender to hold a tender shell to the tender bottom, but I used a small plastic pipe (from pencil) to isolate

7

After blowing up pictures of the Visaton speakers I would say the pair of $4.49 eBay speakers are manufactured by the same Chinese manufacturer as the Visaton.

Even the specs are the same.

All I can say is the eBay version speakers sound GREAT!

Mel

Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951

My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/

Bakersfield, California

8

Thanks Hrvoje.

Excellent sound!

Dave

9

Athearn’s Tsunami decorders

10

Thanks for all the help,

Dave

11

The latest decoder on the market is always best, people throw out old ones and shell out hundreds of $$$$$$ for the latest and greatest…

In reality I have heard the Tsunami one(not the latest and greatest), but it sounded pretty good. Might be able to find a deal on one if you poke around some.

The Loksound in my Scaletrains Big Blow is pretty awesome as well.