I know we have talked about this befor....sound decoders vs stationay speakers around layout. I am thinking of going the speakers around the layout option and using software to conrtol the sound. My concern is that these dedoders do not perform as well as Digitrax decoders and well the cost vs sound quality. I am tempted to try them but a little gun shy due to the cost. Steve your experience does not exactly bode well for buying them
Dodged the bullet on these decoders Matt Well I will have to agree with you. In this day and age it’s really strange that these decoders are not better tested prior to being created and sold. With the cost being double other decoders more testing and R&D is needed. Other than the issues I have already stated here are a couple of others that I found. 1. The LED's are not just dim they are almost invisible. Maybe they have a low power setting but this will have to be looked at maybe a replacement LED like mentioned before. 2. Speaker/Sound volume. This is kind of funny that the Challenger sounds great but these decoders have a mini speaker and can hardly be heard. I have experimented and you can remove that plastic piece with the tab and get better sound but a different speaker is going to be needed. And modifications to the shell are in order for sound output. 3. Prime mover sounds. Now this decoder is advertised as a SD70MAC/AC4400CW replacement why exactly did MRC not put sounds related to these locomotives into the decoder? Its not like there are non out there running. As mentioned before the sounds are not from either of these locomotives. The sounds are good I like the power load up and move but why did they not wait and do this job correctly? I for one would have waited for MRC to do this job correctly and why they did not is only for them to answer. I will keep these sound decoders and run them but I had intended to replace almost my entire fleet with sound now I'm feeling lucky that I did not shell out over $1000.00 for new decoders. I will keep posting my status with these decoders but I'm still not happy with this as one of our first sound decoders. MRC I hope your listening to us about this do you need some help with quatlty over there or maybe an actual Rail Road person to help? Thanks for reading the rant. Steve
I started this thread with such high hopes oh well. If the decoders did not have the stated issues and if the sound was decent (whatever that is) I still believe the price is appropiate for them. However, the stated issues in my opinon are big issues to me and if the sound is just...OK then I really do not think it is worth roughly $70.00 per locomotive. I guess I will stay with Digitrax for most of my locos.
I have to agree with you on that and have already swapped out the one I bought for 2 DN163K1B's for a couple of other engines still in need of decoders.
MY LAST RANT ON THESE CRUMMY SOUND DECODERS DONT BUY THEM! Well you all must have the only "good" ones. I have 4 now 2 are in SD70MAC's and 2 are in AC4400CW (The AC4400CW shell needed modification to correctly seat post decoder install the capacitors on the rear of the decoder hit the shell). They are all installed they run like well crap! I have worked on these for a week now. I can get sound its but its weak (a better speaker would have helped I have found more than one that would have worked) These speakers appear to be for a cell phone or something so if you stick it in your ear the sound is great they just have a small less than 1/8th hole for the sound to exit the speaker complete junk, and with all 4 running its better but very poor. The LED's are a joke replacing does not help. And I can not get one to just run around a loop with out stopping showing down, balking or stammering. All 4 are like this. I can pull the decoders out and put the old Digitrax ones in and they all run like a charm creep consist everything. I increased my DCC track voltage no good. This has to be a cheap decoder issue since my Challenger runs sounds great no stopping or issues at all. I have said it before in this thread but I still can not believe these were shipped out with all of these problems and issues. Bottom line these decoders are not worth your time. MRC needs to step up admit they are junk recall and fix these decoders. At $60 a pop this is crazy. Don’t by them or use them you will not be happy. I pulling all of mine tonight and then I don’t know what I'm going to do with them after that but circular receptacle is looking better all of the time. Steve
I have one in a Kato C44-9w - The installation was a mess - had to do shell mods (like the older Digitrax install). It is working well, but I can't hear anything except the bell - and it is barely audible!! I am experimenting right now with other speakers. According to the instructions, the included speaker is 32 ohm, but the decoder will support speakers from 8 - to 32 ohms. The speaker is 13mm (1.2") and Tonys sells replacement 8 ohm speakers. I am getting ready to order two of them to install - there is plenty of space. I am hoping to get additional volume - at least making the sound worthwhile. I know it is the wrong sounds for this engine, and all of that - but I wanted to have sound in one engine - more fun for nephew (reallly). I would recommend you wait until MRC or some other vendor does it right. As shipped from MRC right now - this unit is totally unacceptable. When I get the additional speakers installed, I will add any additional comments to this thread. Jim
Jim I agree with you on this all i really wanted was good sound. I'm glad to hear that someone has good operation out of one of these decoders. I could have lived with the SD45 motor sounds but the other issues were to great. I found some speakers on the web that looked like they would work also. I think the speaker with this decoder was made for a cell phone the opening on the case is about 1/8 inch so no sound can get out. The link for the speakers I found is below. Hope you get them working as I think sound makes the hobby even more fun. Steve http://starmicronics.com/components/components_pages/prod_series/scb-13a_series.html
My ten cents worth. I've got QSI (mainly in P2k locos) and Soundtraxx (self installed). I bought an Athearn Genesis SD45 with factory fitted sound, which turned out to be an MRC decoder. The loco looked lovely but I was well unimpressed with the decoder and loco mechanism. It seems MRC just have to do everything a bit different to the other companies in terms of how the CVs work, and I didn't like the way the sound worked either. I ebayed it within a month.
Not On Your Life Based on my experience with the Challenger I would not recommend throwing money away on the MRC's. I am having a Tsunami TSU-750 installed in the Challenger as I write this. The MRC sound was ok based on the fact that it was what is available and the Challenger is a beautiful locomotive, but the problems I had having to constantly reset (make that attempting to reset) the decoder was making me crazy (add ier). I should have the newly re-decodered Challenger back next week and will post the results. As for me and my house we will not follow a multitude to waste our money (add again).
is it just me or can we really expect good sound volume when the speaker is resting on the frame below and the board is over the top? looks to me like there is no good way for sound to get out!! steam.. well you have room for the speaker in the tender... but diesels are a whole nother batch of cake mix LOL
I had 2 of these decoders for the AC44's/ SD70M's. I made a dummy unit out of a GP40 UP unit a put a speaker in it and still couldn't hear it over a Soundtraxx unit. MRC decoders suck big time!!! Soundtraxx are alot better. Scott
<replying to old thread> These decoders are crap, don't waste your money. I got one, won't get another. All I wanted was a reliable decoder; perfect sound isn't a concern. But these things are junk; constantly cutting out, completely quit working (motion, sound, everything), etc. And the blue leds !?!? What was MRC thinking with that move ? I have a Prodigy Advance system, and love it. But I won't be buying any more MRC decoders until there's a 180 degree change in their quality.
I to have 4 of them and they are complete crap. Sent them in to MRC they did nothing just returned them to me stating they replaced 2 led's but i sent them in for the same reasons as Steve Brown to bad he is gone I would like to know if he ever got his repaired. MRC you are getting close to loosing my business. SD
IMHO Dont buy any MRC 1644 sound decoders!!!!! Well its my opinion that these 1644 decoders are not worth the money. Mine have now been back 2 times to MRC. The 2nd time I did a test to see if they are even looking or testing them.. From what I can see they might test them but not under "load" I had covered the motor contacts prior to sending mine in for the 2nd time and when I received them back the covering had not even been removed. So I really don't believe they even tested these either time. I also have 2 that have lost speakers now. Its a shame that this item is such utter garbage when it had a chance to be a real money maker. Imagine if they would have actually worked. Any one need 4 of these decoders for cheap? dont waste your money. I have yet to see or hear one of these decoders actually work. Keep your money and give it to someone that actually wants it. thanks SD
i have one of the 1644 decoders installed in a kato ac4400. feelings are somewhat mixed. - installation is not plug and play. the shell of the ac4400 needs quite some work. otherwise the rear end would be pushed up about 1/16". - programming is nasty. latest version of decoderpro is not able to correctly read out the decoder. lots of 'loco not responding' errors - for some strange reason the decoder stops responding to any command. resetting to factory defaults doesn't work all the times - no back emf - no start/mid/end voltage, speed curve seems not to work very exact - reving up of the diesel is delayed. loco starts moving about 2 seconds earlier - price - sound quality is not all that good. a second speaker or an oval one would have helped - not loud enough. if you run the loco at a show no one will probably hear it - no option to turn sound off. loco doesn't operate if the diesel is shut down. + for the small speaker the sound is not too bad + most visitors liked it...'this is funny' .. just my 2 cents
Hi Everyone, This is a great thread! Yeah, I'm in the throws of installing and working with the MRC sound decoders. It's been hard. I just figured these were it. So if I want sound, which I do, I just need to deal with it. I've run into the problem of the ac4400 shell not sitting down which pretty much renders the coupler useless. Can anyone give me some suggestions on how to mod the shell? Thanks!
if i don't forget i will take pictures tonight. i did use my dremel on the shell and on the decoder itself.... if i remove the shell from the loco to take pics i most likely will remove the mrc decoder and replace it with a digitrax. back to what works.
