# Loco Sound



## Walman (Dec 18, 2011)

I’m just starting my N scale empire as many of you know so will be purchasing a few locos in the coming weeks. I’ll be running DCC (digitrax superchief ) so in the beginning will only buy DCC equipped engines but over time will acquaint myself with DCC-ready and do the work myself.

Anyway my question is on sound. I will want to add sound to my locos as well. Can you give me the ins and outs of adding sound? Controllers to get/avoid? Engine specs I need to ensure I have, etc.. I’m going to guess that the majority of my engines will be Atlas.

As always thank you.

Walman


----------



## Xnats (Dec 5, 2010)

If all your engines will be newer, they should be DCC ready. At that point a drop in plug and play would be the easiest. MRC was the first but Digitrax has just added some for a few models. If you are looking for a better quality sound then the light/ sound combo board, it starts getting harder. I say this because the sound is limited by the speaker size. This will be all custom wiring and frame milling to add the speaker and only on the larger engines or inside a steam tender. 
Brooklyn Bound is the only member that I know that has sound in his N Scales. I believe he has the MRC plug and plays. He has videos up somewhere here, so you can hear what they sound like. Other wise it is around 100 bucks to add a quality sound chip, onto your decoder plus all the work to make it fit.


----------



## Brakeman Jake (Mar 8, 2009)

Your best bet is to buy a "DCC ready" Kato and purchase the proper drop-in decoder for it.Being a newcomer to the hobby you need something reliable to start with.Unfortunately,many new modelers start the other way around and when they have problems,they don't have a clue as to what is happening.

There are a few model diesels in N scale that come factory DCC equipped,but they're generally equipped with bottom line decoders that have minimal performance (ex:Bachmann and a few others).

Then installing the right drop-in decoder in a Kato is a piece of cake.If the job scares you,you can ask a friend modeler or ask infos on this forum.Someone will post pictures for you that explain how easy it is to do.

Sound in an N scale diesel....my personal opinion...stay away from it until nice decoders are available.Right now MRC offers some but they have an incredible failure rate.And machining frames to adapt speakers will still be required.May be loco manufacturers will come up with DCC/Sound ready locos some time in the future.


----------



## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

I have been installing decoders in engines from Z to G for many a year now.
Installing sound into a N is not for the inexperianced! It requires a very high skill set to get it right.
The majority of the sound decoders are MRC and yes sadly they have about a 1 in 5 failure rate or lower on some decoders.
Digitrax decoders are far superior to the MRC decoders but are limited to a few loco's.
I'm just getting into working with Soundtraxx Tsunami decoders...Well worth the $$!!
They have a line of decoders that should work very well for N engines but I have not gotten to use one yet! They are not plug and play so you would need experiance with wired installs
A Very High quality Non sound decoders for N is the TCS decoders.
They have a very low failure rate and are tough decoders!


----------



## Walman (Dec 18, 2011)

Great info folks thanks.


----------

