Have you seen this ? ?

[up1950s]

Maybe a DJ setup where we could jerk a vinyl recording of LI Rosie trying to sing would make the right screeches .

[arbomambo]

A speaker under the table sound just like that.  Maybe if you're partially deaf in one ear or something, you can convince your brain that the sound is coming from the locomotive. I can't.  Having the sound come from somewhere other than the locomotive is just a distraction.  I'll take scaled down tinny sound from the locomotive every time.

Honestly, I can give or take sound, but my sons go crazy for it.  If we want to pass this all along to the next generation, we have to embrace sound as an important part of the future.

Jason

The sound system that actually makes me sit up and take notice is Surroundtraxx....the subwoofer is pretty omnidirectional...and 8ohm speakers placed in 'sound blocks' just under the layout does a pretty good job of 'following' the loco(s) around the layout...big sound, no grinding of frames, all motive power powered...
~Bruce

[Cajonpassfan]

Permit me to add an observation: all this talk about sound on this and other threads, pro and con, with strong opinions, and very little about the setting, the stage, the context, in which sound, or lack thereof, might make sense. Yea, sound doesn't scale and it needs to be optimized for its setting or stage. An N-Trak layout in a convention hall, club layouts, home layouts large and small, display pikes, they all require a different approach IMHO, and in some settings, sound may indeed not be very realistic.

There's a lot of bad, tinny sound out there, fighting crowds and other sound-equipped trains, poor installs and poor decoders. Locos that are too loud or too unrealistic or not sync'd. Horrible whistles. Multiple trains competing for attention. I can see adding sound cars to this could be a migrane-inducing cacophony of noise and distraction. Aaaarghh...

But, on a moderately sized private layout, with a limited number of operators, sound can add an awesome dimension, to the point where I rarely run non-sound equipped trains... they look and feel like something out of a silent Buster Keaton movie (and I do love The General) and feel out of place. Of course, for best effect, one must have total control of the layout environment, including lighting, sight lines, and yes, sound lines and quality. By which I mean, throw away the crappy decoders and invest in Tsunamis and ESU's, and quality, properly BAFFLED speakers (see John Colombo's threads for inspiration and direction). Adjust the sound levels such that the sound is prominent enough close up but diminishes rapidly (sound doesn't scale). Steam whistles can be louder over distances. Get your operators to keep the chatter down and soak up the experience.... if they want to talk about cars or planes or taxes or women, they should do it in the lounge, with a beer if desired, outside the train room.... For the same reason, I don't like ops that mix radio headsets with train sounds.... sensory overload. In my pre-radio TT&TO era, chatter is thankfully limited.

I can see a one or two-train display layout with an under the table thunder woofer for that "wow" effect, but not for a larger layout with multiple trains (Sound doesn't scale). On ghe opposite side of the spectrum, in large spaces at couty fairs and suchwith dozens or hundreds of people, sound gets marginalized, but so do our little trains. Of course lighting and presentation typically get an F, so why should sound fare any better under those circumstances?

One last (thankfully?) thought: technology is moving fast, and the progress recently made in both decoders and speaker quality is amazing. I can't but believe that N scale on-board sound will overcome its shortcomings in the near future much like N scale itself...

Of course, just my opinion; your mileage may vary....
Kind regards, Otto K.

[robert3985]

Permit me to add an observation: all this talk about sound on this and other threads, pro and con, with strong opinions, and very little about the setting, the stage, the context, in which sound, or lack thereof, might make sense. Yea, sound doesn't scale and it needs to be optimized for its setting or stage. An N-Trak layout in a convention hall, club layouts, home layouts large and small, display pikes, they all require a different approach IMHO, and in some settings, sound may indeed not be very realistic.

There's a lot of bad, tinny sound out there, fighting crowds and other sound-equipped trains, poor installs and poor decoders. Locos that are too loud or too unrealistic or not sync'd. Horrible whistles. Multiple trains competing for attention. I can see adding sound cars to this could be a migrane-inducing cacophony of noise and distraction. Aaaarghh...

But, on a moderately sized private layout, with a limited number of operators, sound can add an awesome dimension, to the point where I rarely run non-sound equipped trains... they look and feel like something out of a silent Buster Keaton movie (and I do love The General) and feel out of place. Of course, for best effect, one must have total control of the layout environment, including lighting, sight lines, and yes, sound lines and quality. By which I mean, throw away the crappy decoders and invest in Tsunamis and ESU's, and quality, properly BAFFLED speakers (see John Colombo's threads for inspiration and direction). Adjust the sound levels such that the sound is prominent enough close up but diminishes rapidly (sound doesn't scale). Steam whistles can be louder over distances. Get your operators to keep the chatter down and soak up the experience.... if they want to talk about cars or planes or taxes or women, they should do it in the lounge, with a beer if desired, outside the train room.... For the same reason, I don't like ops that mix radio headsets with train sounds.... sensory overload. In my pre-radio TT&TO era, chatter is thankfully limited.

I can see a one or two-train display layout with an under the table thunder woofer for that "wow" effect, but not for a larger layout with multiple trains (Sound doesn't scale). On ghe opposite side of the spectrum, in large spaces at couty fairs and suchwith dozens or hundreds of people, sound gets marginalized, but so do our little trains. Of course lighting and presentation typically get an F, so why should sound fare any better under those circumstances?

One last (thankfully?) thought: technology is moving fast, and the progress recently made in both decoders and speaker quality is amazing. I can't but believe that N scale on-board sound will overcome its shortcomings in the near future much like N scale itself...

Of course, just my opinion; your mileage may vary....
Kind regards, Otto K.

A big +1!

[sdodge]

The added cost and work this new Soundtraxx product presents makes my idea of a sound system that features a single, quality throttle-based speaker(s) rather than multiple equipment-based, tinny speakers and decoders more sensible.

Isn't Kato working on a product like this?

[DKS]

A big +1!

I'll balance this out with a big -1. Sorry, had to do that...