Preview of Kato's upcoming analog sound system...

[brill27mcb]

... As far as the Kato sound is concerned...it's wax cylinder time boyos.  Even though the bigger speakers may sound better than tiny ones actually in N-scale engines, it completely ignores the walk-around philosophy so prevalent in how we in the USA operate our trains most of the time and caters to those who have really small layouts and only run one engine at a time ... 

That's right, Bob -- Kato is catering to their native Japanese market, which is the big market for them. I even wonder if they will offer U.S. diesel sounds, unless they program a variant especially for the KatoUSA sales market.

Rich K.

[rogergperkins]

Well from the perspective of a 73+ year old, who had American Flyer S-gauge, but now models in n-scale, sound have been around for a long time.
My 4-6-2 S-gauge has the chug effect.
I received the e-mail notice directly from Kato.
I viewed the video on my computer; I have Bose speakers, and the sound is fine.
I have not seen a price or a price for the sound element.
Would I be happy to have it to use when running Kato Mikes which do not have DCC decoders install?  I have not decide and am waiting for a lot more
information than I currently have.

[robert3985]

Well from the perspective of a 73+ year old, who had American Flyer S-gauge, but now models in n-scale, sound have been around for a long time.

Wow...and I thought I was old... 

[kalbert]

This is pretty neat. Anyone know if it will have different sounds, or at least a turbo and a non sound?

If your layout is only 6 ft long X 3 ft wide, I guess

So like mine? Or alot of others? Is there something wrong with that? Not sure what you're saying.

[sdodge]

So like mine? Or alot of others? Is there something wrong with that? Not sure what you're saying.

And mine - 7 x 3. I suspect there a lot of small layouts out there where this product would be an ideal way to add sound.

[kalbert]

And mine - 7 x 3. I suspect there a lot of small layouts out there where this product would be an ideal way to add sound.

+1 on a small layout like mine I don't see the advantage for dcc. I like the idea of sound, but the don't care for the noisy toy like sound we have now. If this unit can feed my old amp and fill the train room (or whole house) with rich booming Alco sound I can't wait!

[ednadolski]

I like the idea of sound, but the don't care for the noisy toy like sound we have now.

Totally agree.  Does anyone know of any efforts to add a Bluetooth audio transmitter to a DCC decoder?   Something that could replace the speaker, and transmit to a BT-enabled stationary speaker set?

Ed

[Nato]

        I do believe that sound is nice as Robert points out real trains are not quiet, but I' am way too much of a purist. We run out sound at un realistically very high level's, if we were a scale size N Figure standing our layouts we would be instantly deaf. On the other hand if the sound was set to the scale frequencies then we would just bareily  hear them in our semi-quiet layout rooms, old phart seniors like me who blasted our hearing on Rock in the 70's , 80's, and now maybe on Green Day , Hip Hop, or Techno Pop Funk. At a noise filled train show no one would hear it. Yes I own one of those MRC "Silly Symphony" units or what ever it is named. I have hardly ever used it, if you could connect speakers under the layout at various locations and you could turn off some they you could create the sound of a train moving around the layout. You should be able to follow your train around with the sound controller , that is why I never hooked up the Precision  Scale unit I bought to access all the sounds on their E-7 diesel when using DC. Lastly don't get me started about the default (setting) whistle on the Athearn Challengers and Big Boys. Nate Goodman (Nato). 

[rogergperkins]

We still do not know the price of this system or of the add on elements. 

[atsf_arizona]

Despite it's limitations, I like this Kato idea. 

It appears like it will work with other DC power packs, will be interesting to see if that's the case or if it depends in some way on the particular waveform of DC that the Kato Power Pack puts out.

Anyone want to guess or have insight as to the retail price?   Is there anything equivalent in the Japanese model railroad marketplace that this Kato unit competes with (in order to assess a price point?

 

[up1950s]

Anyone want to guess as to the retail price?

179.89 for the unit , a generic steam and diesel mod comes with the unit . and 49.16 per future mods .

[One of One-Sixty]

I also like the idea, and while I am a big Kato fan (Not quite on a Fanboy level), I am up on the air with this one.

As for price, considering that about 10yrs ago Tomix, Kato's biggest rival in Japan has an all in one (power and sound controller) sold for $1200 USD.  With this being a separate add-on item, and the going prices for Kato's regular power packs and accessories I will say MSRP will be in the range of $49.95-$69.95,  additional sound containers I would say MSRP $24.95.

As for sounds, it is my understanding that Kato USA has teamed up with SoundTraxx for the sounds that will be used in the "Kato Sound Box". 

It does have 2 audio out lines to hook-up to external speakers, so I can see a lot of possibilities especially with a with a computer speaker set-up that comes with speakers and a subwoofer.