The cost of sound chips

[Tony]

Although my Hobby is G my main living is selling other scales OO O etc where sound chips are half the price of our Lager scales but at £100 for an ESU chip and sec hand Hornby / Bachmann sound locos selling for £200. the DCC market has been slow to take off................ Things are about to change
http://www.hornby.com/shop/2014-range/tts-digital-sound-locomotives/
Lets hope LGB and the like take note

 

[PhilP]

The OO market is (many) times bigger then that for G ..
Economies of scale come in here.

If you are thinking this will drive down 'large scale' pricing, I do not agree. Personally, I believe the smaller scales have been over-priced for some time.

I do not believe these units will be of any (retro-fit) use for us (wrong sounds, except perhaps the diesels??).

 

[Tony]

I was merely saying from sound locos selling new for £400+ and £200 sec hand it only takes one major maker (Hornby in this case) to stir the pudding and sell a large mainline digital sound loco for £139 and you can bet (thats RRP) shops will have them for less..... lets face it the gubbins in a chip is not much more than an mp3 player that china sells for £4.99.... If Hornby can do it then Bachmann and Marklin may have to follow suit and then the up grage from 1amp chip to our 5amp chips cant be to far behind.......Just a thought but progress in my eyes

 

[PhilP]

Ah, see where you are coming from..
I suppose things might trickle down to us..??

*Note to self*
Compare Massoth / Marklin decoder prices, and see what is available in the Marlin range to suit LGB stock.

**Anyone contemplating 'chipping' the analogue Allegra .. go Marklin, not Massoth.**
Your mileage may vary.. But, if you are in any doubt of your abilities, then fit the Marklin!

 

[stockers]

Twin track - I assume thats two channel. Some of the large gauge sound units are 6 channel. That means you can have several sounds running at the same time. Does that matter - well if your chuffing along (1 track) and the cylinder cocks are open (2nd track) and you blow the whistle (3rd track) you see where I am going. Not essential true - but nice.
Let alone the power differences.

 

[PhilP]

Humm.. 'Twin track'
See where you are coming from Alan..

Must be showing my age.. I immediately assumed this new-fangled 'stereophonic' system they go on about!
???

 

[beavercreek]

While an mp3 player can play sounds in a linear fashion the 'grunt' of the DCC sound chip is in the IC that allows sounds to be polyphonic, modified, combined and also respond to parameters like load on the motor etc.

There are a few factors which make the G scale sound decoders a little more expensive than OO gauge besides the large factor of economies of scale.
They have heftier components that can take the higher currents involved. They may have more capable function outputs and also larger 'stay alive' capacitors on board etc.

The prices of European makers 'straight' G scale sound decoders is a little high but sometimes it is possible to combine OO scale DCC sound boards with G scale 'power' decoders for a cheaper outlay.
There are also some cheaper OO scale power decoders which can handle up to 3amps. So for some locos they can be decoder-ed with a combination of power and sound decoders for less than a ton. eg Digitrax, Uhllenbrock etc. Some combinations need SUSI connectors, some don't.
Of course the fly in the ointment is what sounds you are after as this can determine what options of price reduction by combining you can achieve.

For power thirsty locos...
The 6 amp (10 stall) G scale Titan sound decoders from the likes of QSI etc are very capable beasts and sell for the equivalent of about £125 in the states whilst their 10amp (20 stall) jobbies go for about £135. This is far more reasonable than equivalent Massoth XXL combined with Emotion LS sound decoder or even ESU over in the US...BUT over here prices, although better for QSI over its competitors, are not so distant from each other.


While the Hornby strategy might well bring down the prices of OO scale and even the O scale sound decoders overall, it is quite a jump for manufacturers to carry that over to the much smaller market of G scale...but hope is always good...... Soundtraxx might get back in the G scale market (good and cheap decoders) but maybe that will not help the search for cheap european sounds.