I'm sure it will be held up because of the litigation that is currently delaying much of the industry, as MTH squabbles over what they claim are exclusive rights to certain DCC functions.
I believe quality sound is possible in a small diesel. The key, IMHO, is a
1watt speaker and an appropriate baffle. I did an upgrade to SoundTraxx' plug and play kit for Proto 2000 Geeps, and it's surprising how high the sound quality is!
All true, I was using "selective techno-jargon compression" to be brief for non-electronic types who could care less about the details. And we didn't even get to the decision to arbitrarily limit the frequency response. double sigh ....
Different definitions of quality, which I grant. Note most of the rest of my post was about appropriate speaker baffle design. Or instead of just a baffle, an enclosure of appropriate volume will really enhance the sound. Be careful with the wattage on the speaker. I think one watt is fine, but in one of their documents or an e-mail to me Soundtraxx warned that their processors can be overdriven leading to failure.
The only plug and play I've tried is the 0-8-0 that comes with an oval speaker. Most disappointing sound, even with the whole tender to use for an enclosure. I am going to try a few tricks like adding foam, but I'll probably just end up changing to a round speaker.
I haven't been brave enough to attempt the math for a ported speaker enclosure design such as Bose and Thiele-Small use to increase bass response and clarity from tiny drivers. Anyone out there tried that yet?
Ported (tuned or otherwise) can increase bass response by changing the "free air resonance" of a particular speaker to below what it is naturally by reinforcing the speaker movement at a particular frequency, at the expense, usually of damping out frequencies below that by destructive reinforcement.
But a 1" or so speaker will have a minimum frequency response of > 200Hz if only owing to the amount of air it can displace. The 'clarity" of which you speak is really mid to high frequencies which are not affected by enclosure size, but by the dispersion pattern of the high-frequency transducer: the single speaker in this case. Many of the DCC speaker designs are downward firing out of the bottom of the tender, box car, B unit, whatever, and high frequencies are severely attenuated. Mostly what you are going to get is midrange less than 2000Hz; but that is enough for OK locomotive sound suggestions, especially bells and whistles.
The size of the enclosure to enhance the "bass" is not just "make it bigger" as some would suggest (like the LoysToys website), but to re-enforce a particular frequency. The Thiel et al, and especially the book "Loudspeaker design" by an author unknown to me will work, but don't expect bowel moving bass out of these things.
Ed
in article snipped-for-privacy@walkersquawker.net, SleuthRaptorman at snipped-for-privacy@walkersquawker.net wrote on 12/28/03 11:55 PM:
in article BC15BA62.2E7BB% snipped-for-privacy@unearthlylink.net, Edward A. Oates at snipped-for-privacy@unearthlylink.net wrote on 12/29/03 11:03 AM:
The book to which I refer is
"Introduction to Loudspeaker Design" By John L. Murphy
$25. At Amamzon.
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