I am looking to purchase some recent locomotive releases.
I am not at all a fan of sound equipped engines, I have never thought the sound of most of them, especially in the smaller scales is very realistic.
I have a few of them, but generally only run them for guests or open houses. Otherwise the sound is turned off.
My issue is I would like to purchase DCC equipped units without sound and they just don’t seem to have them anymore. I can’t see paying twice the price in some cases for something I don’t want. On the other hand I’m not interested in buying a DC unit, some with speakers installed, so I can remove that, and then find and install a non-sound decoder.
Am I the only one who thinks and feels this way? I do see a lot of posts complaining about sound quality, so I’m guessing not.
It appears now to be a bit more common for N-scale manufacturers to offer a choice of DC - DCC - DCC/Sound. But a few manufacturers in HO do it (Bachmann “DCC On Board”) and if you look around online or at train meets you can find slightly older engines from other manufacturers like Atlas that are DCC / silent.
Virtually any locomotive you buy now in HO (and many in other scales) is going to be “DCC Ready”, meaning it has a receptacle for a DCC decoder to be plugged in. More recent engines will probably have a 21-pin receptacle; Others will have an 8- or 9-pin receptacle. Generally it’s as easy as removing the two screws holding on the couplers and removing them, pulling off the body (or tender shell on a steam engine), removing the dummy plug, and then plugging in the decoder.
“Finding” a non-sound decoder is extremely easy. Several manufacturers make very good decoders: ESU, TCS, Digitrax, NCE and others. You can buy four or five good non-sound decoders for the price of one top-of-the-line sound decoder. TCS makes decoders with their “Keep Alive” installed in it, so the engine won’t stall on dirty track or going through a crossing or turnout.
BTW, if an engine has a built-in speaker, there’s no reason to remove it. It doesn’t affect anything if you run it on DC or install a non-sound DCC decoder. But if in the future you ever decide to add a sound decoder, all you have to do is plug that in and you have sound. It also keeps the value of the engine higher if you ever decide to sell it.
you might look on ebay for older used DCC locos without sound.
i recently started having op-sessions on my small home layout and feel sound from 2 or more locos would be too anoying in a smaller room
At the club, we had a discussion on limiting the volume on locos because you could hear them on the other side of the room. Sound may make sense if at an appropriate level and if you’re just watching a train go by.
Things I should have clarified in the original post.
I was looking for feedback on if others think this situation was smart on the part of manufacturers, or are they missing an opportunity?
I’m in N-Scale, where we don’t have the luxury of the standardized plug like HO and other scales. Years ago in conversations with other N-Scalers we wondered why they didn’t standardize on the dimensions of the light boards so that 1 or 2 decoder designs would fit any split frame locomotive.
Without exception every currently available locomotive I would like to add to my roster is only available either DC or DCC with sound. Because they are new, there are no non-sound decoders available (the lack of a standard). Do I buy one and wait for a possible future decoder, or do I wait for a decoder to come available, only to find the locomotive is sold out due to limited production runs.
I have a number of older, good running, non-DCC units that I could, with a lot of time, retrofit a decoder into. In most cases they do not help me reach my modeling goals and this is certainly not how I want to spend my modeling time. Back in the day there was a company, Aztec(sp?) who you could send your frame and they had figured out how to mill them to fit a decoder. I used them a lot, and it was a good solution, but they are long gone.
There are a lot of ways to address my issue, I was wondering if others agree with me that manufacturers are missing an opportunity. This becoming a very expensive hobby (another topic). There are a number of reasonably priced DCC systems for the entry level market. Unfortunately, for someone without the skills, or $250-300, there don’t seem to be many options to start and build their empire.
I’m with you on wanting DCC without sound. My layout is N, and I buy mostly Kato locomotives. To my knowledge, Kato offers nearly every locomotive in DC, DCC, and DCC with sound.
i’m no business person, but i’ll bet they make more money on higher priced than lower priced items. So until they have spare inventory, it seems modelers are willing to pay that price and Atlas would be likley to market one without sound.
i think the reasoning is similar for so many manufacturers to market Big Boys.
i don’t have expensive tastes and am frugal. There are bargains at train shows if you can find what you’re looking for or willing to compromise.
If you look at the listing Greg posted, there’s an entire pre-order listing of their Silver Series engines which come with the plug but no sound (according to an online search). Now I do see some road names are sold out in Gold Series. Best bet would to reach out to each manufacturer and see what is available or your local dealer…
My guess would be, given that pretty much all manufacturers offered DCC non-sound engines in the past is that, compared to DCC/Sound and DC, they just didn’t sell that many. So they quit offering them.
Also, compared to years ago, it’s SO EASY to add non-sound DCC to an engine that it’s not that big an issue anymore. Now all you have to do is take the body off (two screws), unplug the dummy plug, plug in the decoder, and put the body back on. No soldering or taking the motor apart to isolate it from the chassis.
Lastly, I know from comments here and on other forums that many folks have a favorite brand of decoder. They would rather buy a DCC-ready engine and plug-in the decoder they like. That way, it’s easier to have all the function buttons do the same thing, set the lights, etc. since you’re always working with the same decoder.
Imagine the frustration of an engine you want only being available with say a TCS decoder, but you only like NCE decoders. You’re spending extra money for a DCC decoder that you’re probably going to remove and install an NCE one you bought. So you’re paying for two decoders, and using only one. With DCC ready, you just plug in your NCE decoder and you’re all set.
I know with a lot of videos I watch I end up turning the sound off because it just becomes annoying. It ends up being a bunch of racket and often sounds more like somebody running a hair dryer than like real trains.
Here’s my opinion on sound: I like it. Now, here’s my issue. I use O. As such, my sound-equipped trains have enormous speakers (and sometimes even actual air whistles) stuffed inside them. Thus, they get the deep bass sound that, in my opinion, is lacking in HO and N. I think that sound in the smaller scales is still better than none at all, but there I can see it being eschewed. And, I really hate it when there’s no volume control. That annoys me to no end, because sometimes I want to talk while the train is running. And when the train’s sounds are a quarter of the volume of a real one, that’s a bit difficult.
I’ve liked sound in HO since first hearing it from BLI (Quantum PRR GG1 and T1 and N&W A). I found I was not as distraught as I thought at the exhaust not being strictly synchronized to driver rotation – guess I have to give up my charter membership in the Rivet Counter Marching and Chowder Confraternity. And as someone well aware that it’s impossible to listen to classical music on AM radio, but who still does, I can make allowances for a certain amount of tinniness in the various sounds produced by locomotives, if the general timbre of the sound files (e.g. hitching idle of a poorly-governed 539T or startup and idle of a Roots-blown 567) is prototypical.
One thing I can’t stand is toy-train ‘cab chatter’. And another thing I can’t stand is a lack of perceived dynamic range. A bell that is too loud or strident, or a whistle or horn that is not clearly louder than engine or track sounds, just destroys the illusion for me. And what that implies is reasonable ‘volume control’ for a range of individual sounds relative to each other, not just a couple of global levels set as CVs or adjusted by ALC against background noise.
If I want bass from HO or N, I’m not going to Helmholtz resonators; I’ll do something like Rolling Thunder with the nondirectional low frequency and infrasound, and perhaps with some of the midrange where accuracy of sound is more important than imaging.
I am not sure why there isn’t a ‘mute button’ function on these decoders that toggles either a disabling of some or all the sound or a 4dB - 10dB reduction while preserving the relative dynamic range – then restores it without fiddling.
Personally, I don’t care for sound. I turn it off in my sound equipped locomotives.
My last locomotive, 2-8-0 2 rail O scale from Atlas, has sound and smoke both of which I turned off. Otherwise I really like it. The Protosound3 decoder is great since it auto detects DC, AC, or DCC (after removing the DCC/DCS jumper). I can use whatever power/control source is handy.
Are you hoping there will now be a ground swell of hobbyists who demand N scale engines that come DCC but no sound? As others have pointed out, manufacturers appear to have come to the conclusion that offering DC/DCC ready or DCC/Sound was the best option.
That being the case, if you do not want DCC/sound, your other option is to purchase DCC ready and install a DCC silent decoder such as the LokPilot 5. I install those in engines I buy that are DCC ready. Most newer N scale engines come with a quick install interface such as the E24 connector.
As mentioned F8 mutes the sound on pretty much all DCC decoders. Most also have a setting that determines how loud the muted sound is - the default is of course zero (no sound) but you can make it any volume you want. Just check the instructions for setting CVs for your decoder.
You are definitely not the only one who feels that way. A lot of model railroaders prefer DCC-equipped engines without sound, especially in the smaller scales where the audio can feel unrealistic. The problem is that many manufacturers now default to “DCC + sound,” so the silent versions are getting harder to find.
That said, you still have options. Some brands continue to offer DCC-ready or DCC-only (no sound) versions, but they sell out quickly because they are more affordable. You can also look for models that come with a basic motor-only decoder already installed, which gives you full DCC control without paying for sound you won’t use.
And no - you are definitely not alone. Plenty of hobbyists prefer quiet locomotives and only turn sound on for guests or special runs. There’s still a demand for non-sound DCC units; you just have to keep an eye out because the supply is smaller now.