In Lokstep

Back to the ol’ Hills Line Mailbag…

Could you expand on why you chose the Loksound decoders in a later post?

It’s been the better part of a year since I upgraded my entire locomotive roster on The Hills Line to Loksound 5 decoders, so an update (and explanation) is long overdue.

My goal in making the change was to take advantage of the multitude of improvements available amongst 2nd-generation sound decoders. When used in conjunction with the ProtoThrottle from Iowa Scaled Engineering, the combination places me inside the cab of an IAIS geep better than just about anything else.

As I had written at the time, it really came down to a tie on all angles when choosing between Loksound and Soundtraxx decoders. There were pros and cons to both solutions. Soundtraxx’s built-in EQ creates a superior sound environment, however Loksound exceeds on the lighting functions. The deciding factor came not from a technical aspect, but rather a social one.

You see… all my modeling friends were using Loksounds.

Since either option would ultimately give me the experience I wanted to replicate when operating, it didn’t matter which way I went in selecting decoders. However, having a group of like-minded modelers who had already made their decision made the decision for me. My logic was that by replicating what had worked for them, it would also work for me. Plus I had built-in technical support a text or email away.

The question then becomes… had my like-minded friends chosen Soundtraxx for their roster, would I have done the same? Answer… probably.

There’s something to be said about the effect of the community aspects of this hobby, even on lone-wolf modelers.