Here’s the offboard sound setup for the LAJ. I took the photo prior to tucking the wires under the layout so you can see what’s going on. We have: an O scale speaker, a handmade speaker enclosure, a separate decoder programmed to the same address as the locomotive, and some quick disconnect plugs.
As I circle back to the LAJ layout, the next order of business was offboard sound. In this instance I didn’t want to go all out with computer speakers. In a conversation last year with Christian Javiar, he suggested just going with large scale speakers which I ultimately did. The concept is simple. I have a second decoder tucked under the layout which is programmed to the same address as the loco. I’m using at the time. I then just plug that “under layout” decoder into a large scale DCC speaker. If you go this route using disconnect plugs in your harness will make your life much easier in the likely event you want to unplug the decoder for whatever reason.
Here’s the harness which is simple enough. We have the decoder, the speaker, and disconnect plugs.
Here’s the speaker I used.
The sound with this arrangement is far, far superior to onboard sound. The fact that the speaker and loco. are in different spots, is slightly obvious but not objectionable for a small layout. Implementation is easier than using a computer speaker system, although the sound, while still very good, isn’t quite as impressive as using the much larger home audio speakers.
I continue to be frustrated that the decoder manufacturers don’t give us anything to work with regarding offboard sound. It’s simple acoustics. An onboard loco. speaker will always face insurmountable obstacles and, excuse the french, sound fairly shitty regardless of speaker quality. Think of it this way. Imagine listening to music on your smartphone with top of the line earbuds…plugged into your ears. The sound will be amazing. The speakers aren’t the issue. Now, take the earbuds out, place them on your lap, and notice the precipitous drop in audio quality. It’s the same issue we face with onboard loco. sound.
Hi Lance,
AN even better way is to have offboard sound be the lower end range (bass) while the onboard sound is the higher range (tweeter). Bass waves travel further and are less directional due to their longer wavelengths, while tweeter sounds are more focused and directional, traveling shorter distances. THe bass coming out of a speaker not close to the locomotive will be less noticable, especially paired with a tweeter style speaker in the locomotive. The club I was a member of back in the mid 1980’s expermaited with the using the old PFM sound system and using stereo speakers under the layout.
Jim
Do any decoders offer a way to filter out sound above or below a given frequency, or would you have to install a lowpasss or highpass filter?
I don’t think so. However, many years ago I was tweaking the sound on a Tsunami 1 with Decoder Pro. There was a lot of sound tuning you could do. More than you’d think.
Hi Lance
I like the simplicity of your system ! How would you modify the decoder setting to deal with multiple locos that may be used in a running session. Obviously using only one loco at a time?
The offboard decoder is set up with quick disconnect plugs. It would need to be re-programmed to the address of the loco. you are running.