Hi everyone! I installed a Digitrax SDXN146K1E drop-in sound decoder in a Kato SD45, but the original speaker had a weak sound. So I tried over 30 types of GSM speakers, until I found one that fits perfectly and sound better than the original. It's a HTC G11 speaker (16 x 9 x 3 mm) and it costs only $0.30 on Aliexpress. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32824586474.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.7cb74c4dVoPggD Some photos and video of the final install: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZWtqkmojG1pC47zj7 Hope it helps, Best regards, Bogdan
In the end I replaced the Digitrax SDXN146K1E sound decoder with a non-sound one, the sound quality of the decoder was too bad. Also I didn't run it too much, I think the quality of the speaker is above the ones that comes with the decoder.
I have yet to hear an N-scale sound decoder install that sounds like I want it too. Some laws of physics just don't scale the way we want them to. That said, some are definitely better than others. I still keep thinking that somebody is going to have to come up with a cheap locomotive identification/position detecting/reporting system, that can work with something like JMRI VSD to project the sound from the right location, but with more realistic sound that you can only get from speakers that are much larger than what will fit in an N scale locomotive (even an unpowered dummy loco). Block detection would require much smaller (and therefore many more) zones than are typically used, and/or the system would have to manage the transitions between zones to accurately project the sound "from" the right location. Maybe the 77GHz automotive radar ICs and antennas will get cheap enough to embed in a decoder, to use for something like this... Hopefully the plastic locomotive shell is transparent (enough) at 77Ghz... Note, only the transmitter would need to be in the loco, a common receiver (x3) would be above/around the layout.
