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Recommended sound decoders Athearn RTR GP40

Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2014 9:29 pm
by geofftiller
Hi All

I've just purchased a couple of second hand Athearn RTR GP40s (the old style with no DCC board) and I'd like to fit them with sound decoders. These will obviously need to be hard wired types.

I've never fitted sound decoders before and only have one factory fitted sound decoder in an Athearn Genesis GP15-1. I'd be interested in recommendations and experiences for the most effective sound decoders for both sound qualityy and motor control.

Thanks

Geoff Tiller

Re: Recommended sound decoders Athearn RTR GP40

Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2014 10:02 pm
by BrianMoore
I would always recommend the Loksound Select or V4. The motor control is wonderful, straight out of the box, and rarely needs any tweaking. The sounds can also be upgraded when new or better are released, and are in some cases better than Tsunami. The horn sounds are almost all much better.

Tsunamis can be made to run smoothly, but there can be a huge amount of faffing about to get you there.

No contest.

Re: Recommended sound decoders Athearn RTR GP40

Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2014 7:10 pm
by Mike_R
Hi Geoff

Also a Loksound fan.
Go with a Select to have something similar to a Tsunami, but cheaper at £75, better motor control, 6 function outputs, fully re-mappable functions and downloadable sound projects and firmware updates. The programmer is required to change projects and firmware, but the functions, sound selections etc. are done with CVs.

A V4 also gives the ability to change the individual sounds, completely alter the way the sounds work and make you own sound projects.
Functions 5 & 6 need extra components.
The programmer is required for all the sound work.

The Select Aux 6 would be suitable for hard wiring. See here for more info http://www.esu.eu/en/products/loksound/loksound-select/

Re: Recommended sound decoders Athearn RTR GP40

Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2014 1:04 pm
by warbonnetuk
If you buy your Loksound chips from Coastal DCC they will load the sound file of your choice prior to shipping

Dan

Re: Recommended sound decoders Athearn RTR GP40

Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2014 7:39 pm
by Mike_R
They are also the cheapest I've come across.

I've just seen a video comparing conventional speakers and Knowles micro speakers with Loksound decoders. The Knowles sounded far better.

Re: Recommended sound decoders Athearn RTR GP40

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 8:02 am
by geofftiller
Hi Dan/Mike

Thanks for the buying pointers, and for the speaker recommendation. I tend to look at Coastal DCC first as they are my local DCC specialist, even better if they are cheapest!.

Thanks
Geoff

Re: Recommended sound decoders Athearn RTR GP40

Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 10:03 pm
by geofftiller
Hi Mike

Can you recommend a particular model of Knowles speaker?

Cheers
Geoff

Re: Recommended sound decoders Athearn RTR GP40

Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 10:42 pm
by Mike_R
I don't what model, I just read and heard a video somewhere. It was probably on the Loksound forum or Laurie McLean's Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/scoopmmr