Sorry for the cross post from the "A" board but I'm rather stunned by the poor quality of the sound in my new Athearn Challenger. Hi all, I just received my new Athearn Challenger with Tsumani sound. I was eagerly anticipating this due to all the praise I've heard for Tsunami. Well the result is disappointing in the extreem. My MDC challenger sounds loads better! Here are the faults in my book. 1. Whistle sound in so low to be almost inaudible when the engine is moving. There is no option to change the whistle sound. 2. Chuff rate seems way to high at speed the chuffs blend almost completely together. There is no option to adjust the chuff rate. 3. There is no volume control on the sound just "on" or "mute". 4. Only about 9 or 10 of the functions are used. No functions above 12 are programmed. All in all I'm thinking about returning this one and just keeping my MDC equipted Challengers. Speed control is improved but the sound is way worse than either my older Challengers of my Walthers 2-8-8-2. Maybe I got a lemon? Anyone else have one of the new ones? Thanks, Kevin
Are you sure that you can't change the whistle volume or main volume? I have a few Soundtraxx Tsunamis and they all have those options. I can't remember off the top of my head what you have to change. You might check Soundtraxx's website to see if they have a manual for that particular decoder in PDF form.
Thanks, I'll check that out. The minimal documentation that comes with the locomotive makes no mention of options to change the sounds. Both the other sound equipted locomotives came with function assignments to change the whistle type, volume and chuff rate. Kevin
you need to go to the soundtraxx website and download the tech manual for all the cvs and settings. the athearn site does not have the steam version up yet.
Athearn didn't include any real documentation with my N scale FP45 with sound, either, nor even a mention, IIRC, that there is documentation available. I was having some of the same problems with volume that you are experiencing. I hope it works out for you!
There are many CV's you can change to help your sound on these. I do not know if any one bothered to set the CV's up for the loco. You can turn up the volume on the horn, and exhaust. you can change the chuff rate. All of these things can be changed. One thing that no one said any thing about and that was slow speed operation. You need to set CV's 209 and 210 for that. I will bet that they are set to the default value now. These will help the chuff rate too. Download the manual it will be a great help- It is a long one about 66 or 67 pages worth.
I did download the manual and give it a brief once over. I boosted the whistle volume to 255 and its now barely audible but still does not sound like a whistle, more like static. I'll see if they included different whistles on the decoder. I will also try to adjust the chuff rate. The slow speed does seem better, just the sounds have me miffed right now. thanks, Kevin
You might check with Athearn to see if you got a bad decoder or speaker. I am wondering if your speaker is a lemon. Soundtraxx decoders, when operating properly, blow those MRC ones out of the water. This talk of static has me wondering if this thing has bad connections to the speaker or just a bad speaker.
I'm not sure its the speaker. The bell sounds just fine and the steam chuff sound is good, its just the timing of the chuffs that seems off. Instead of the WHOOOOO WHOOOO whistle of my MRC decoder Challengers, the one Tsunami one seems more hiss hiss. It could be be particular whistle effect that they set. I'm going to try and change the whistle effect and see if another whistle sounds better. That is assuming that they included all 8 whistles that the pdf talks about. later, Kevin
You can cycle through the available whistles via CV115 (from 0 to 7). Also, there are two separate volume controls. There is a master volume control in CV 128, and then individual volume controls for the individual main sounds (e.g., bell, whistle, chuff, air pump, boiler, steam hiss, etc.). I set the master volume at almost maximum (250) and then adjust the individual volume controls to my liking. On a real steam engine, for example, the bell is barely audible over the chuffs, but the whistle should be much louder than the chuffs. Finally, if this is a full Tsunami like the after-market versions, there is a sound equalizer you can (and should) use to further fine-tune the sound. You set CV 153 to 7, which enables the user control for the EQ, and then play with the values in CVs 154-160. A good starting point would be the following: CV 154 - 0 (very low bass, which the speaker can't reproduce anyway) CV 155 - 0 (bass, ditto) CV 156 - 240 (upper bass) CV 157 - 220 (lower midrange) CV 158 - 150 (midrange) CV 159 - 120 (upper mid/lower treble) CV 160 - 120 (treble) You can use ops mode programming (programming on the main) to vary these values while the engine is running to get the sound most pleasing to your ears. Use the chuffs to set CV's 156-158; the bell and whistle to set CV's 159-160 (they have more treble energy than the chuffs). I don't know what kind of speaker Athearn has in the new Challengers, but the Tsunami has so many individual sound controls that I would be absolutely shocked if you can't set it to your liking (and in a way that completely blows away the sound of the MRC). As for the chuff timing, that can be set via CV116. Again, use ops mode programming to vary the values and watch the drivers for optimum chuff timing. I don't know if this comes from the factory in articulated sound mode (dual chuffs) or standard rod mode (single chuff); but you can change this in CV112. Set CV112 to 1 (single chuff mode, dual airpumps) and then adjust the chuff timing in CV116. Now if you want to enable articulated mode (dual chuffs, where you get the "cha-CHA" sound of an articulated at low speed), change CV112 back to 61 (I think - you'll need to look at the owners manual for the values). You can even change CV112 to a value that varies the dual chuffs so that they go in and out of sync like you would hear on most real articulateds (though I have to say that I really don't like the articulated sound of the Tsunami at speed; it sounds too much like a gatling gun rather than a real articulated, and I have left my Tsunamis in simple mode - CV112 at 1). And Athearn should have included all this information with the engine, or at least told the customer to go to Soundtraxx's web site for the full manual. Not doing so is a major customer service blunder. John C.
Lots of good information here from John C. Good stuff ! You can make this decoder do magic if you work with the CV's. I myself perfer to set the master at about 190 to 200. I then set the whistle to the max. I also turn up the exhaust, and turn down the bell and adj. the ring rate. I also use CV 153 but I set it to 2 or 3. These numbers are are for speaker size. Everyone has there own idea of what the loco should sound like. This decoder lets you build the sound the way you like to hear it.
Ok, I've had a chance to play about with the sounds and things are a little better though I'm still not extremely pleased. Whistle - Still Anemic Even with the volume set to max (255) you can barely hear it over the chuff sounds. Of the 7 possible whistles, they only included 3 (0,1,2) I'm using 2. Chuff - I've determined that though the rate may be correct, at about half throttle the chuffs completely blend together. Even though the MRC chuffs are not as rich as the Tsunami ones, even at max throttle you can hear the "beat" of the chuffs. I'm not sure how to fix that. I set the chuff volume down to 60 so that I can hear the whistle when the engine is moving. Maybe I was expecting too much after reading the glowing reviews of the Tsunami's folks have installed in their challengers. I'll be interrested to see if someone else who gets one of the new ones posts their review. thanks, Kevin
Kevin, I think maybe your speaker is not responding well to sounds in the range of the whistle. I have never had the difficulty you experience. I think you should contact Athearn and see about a warranty repair. It might be the speaker. I am thinking about kind of blown stereo speakers and how they usually work okay for a certain range of sounds but then when you hit sounds in a certain frequency range they get all weak and full of static. Good luck, Adam
I had missed John C's post and what a gold mine that was! Armed with that info and Woodone's I've made the following changes: CV 112 = 1 (Exhaust mode, air pump) CV 115 = 2 (Bell) CV 128 = 250 (Master Volume) CV 129 = 254 (Bell Volume) CV 131 = 60 (Chuff Volume) CV 153 = 7 (equalizer) CV 154 - 0 (very low bass, which the speaker can't reproduce anyway) CV 155 - 0 (bass, ditto) CV 156 - 158 (upper bass) CV 157 - 150 (lower midrange) CV 158 - 128 (midrange) CV 159 - 128 (upper mid/lower treble) CV 160 - 128 (treble) This has improved things alot. I now get a "Whooo Whooo" for the whistle though I can't get the volume up to where I would like it. I just may have to turn down the chuff volume a bit more. As I said before only 3 of the 7 whistles are available (3 through 7 all sound like 0). I set the chuff type to single, dual air pump (CV112 = 1). Though articulated sounds good at low speed, at track speed the chuffs blend together too much. I'm liking this better with all your folk's help. Thanks all, you may have saved this loco. Kevin
The other thing you might want to do is change CV182. This CV controls the "dynamic exhaust" function of the Tsunami. The Tsunami is set up so that the chuffs get louder at speed, unless the engine is coasting down a grade. I find that the default value of CV182 allows too much volume increase in the chuffs when the engine is under load, and turn this value down to something closer to the overall chuff volume. Since you've set chuff volume overall at 60, I'd try maybe 75 for CV182 and see what that does for you. You should take a look at the manual regarding the DDE (dynamic exhaust) function and the CV's related to it - there are a lot of things you can change about the chuff sound at speed. John c.
I wonder if Athearn had Soundtraxx build a decoder to THERE (Athearn) specs. Do you know which decoder they used. Light steam- medium steam or heavy steam. All of these decoders from Soundtraxx have a different whistle selection. One more thing did you try setting CV 209 and CV210? They come from Soundtraxx ( a true Tsunami) defaulted to about 20 and 25 and I have found that to be way to high. Make sure that you have CV3 and 4 set to zero. Then adj CV210 down to about 6 or 7. At speed steep one the loco should barely move and will be jerky. Now set CV209 until it smoothes out.
Ok, changed CV 182 and now have things about where I like them. I've been making minor tweeks to CVs 156-160 but that is just fine tuning. I'm pretty fried from messing with the sound so I'll leave the speed control for another day. I don't find it too bad the way it is as long as you use a gentle tough on the throttle. Thanks so much John and Woodone! I don't know why Athearn did not put more effort into setting their default sound better! If they had you two working on it they'd have more of a winner right out of the box. I'll be interrested to hear what some others think. thanks again!, Kevin
I was just about ready to order one! Glad you posted this because I don't want to go threw all the work changing everything just to get one to sound right.
Just a thought have you looked at the speaker to see if it picked up some metal shavings and/or other junk Just Saying (Stuff Happens)~AlanC.
Go to page 42 of the "Tsunami Steam Sound User’s Guide." (download from the Tsunami Soundtraxx site) CV 115 sets the type of whistle. I believe in the decoder version Athearn is using there are 4 possible whistles (CV115 set to 0,1,2,or 3), not the full 8 shown on page 42. My opinion is that whistle # 2 (CV115 set to 1 is the best.
