Athearn SD45 - decoder question

[scootbird]

Just got a Athearn SD45 - sweet loco - would like to equip this puppy with a sound decoder.  Question, what is best sounding decoder that fits this loco....the Athearn parts list shows that it can accept an 8 or 9 pin plug in connector directly into the factory board.  I am new to HO as I model in N where I am well versed with DCC operations and mods.  Not quite sure where to go in this however.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Mike

[Packer]

Soundtraxx and QSI are pretty much your only choices. I'd recommend soundtraxx since they sound better. The QSI ones don't sound that good and are a pain to program. Stay away from MRC. IIRC, soundtraxx decoders are less expensive than QSIs too.

Soundtraxx turbo 645:

/>QSI turbo 645:

(that's actually G scale but the sound file is the same as the HO one)

Most of my sound equipped engines are QSIs since that's what Atlas, P2K, and BLI use. All the sound installs I'll do will be Soundtraxx.

[scootbird]

Is the Soundtraxx decoder you recommend (I am leaning that way) just a plug it in and go type of install?  Is there some link out there that may shed more info on this?

Thanks for your earlier reply

[diburning]

The Soundtraxx Tsunami comes in 4 different forms.  The TSU-AT1000 which is a board replacement decoder (soldering necessary), or a TSU-GT1000 which is designed for Athearn Genesis locos (not applicable here), The TSU-1000, which is a decoder with a 9-pin JST connector, and a plug for the speaker on the other end of the board.  If you buy sountraxx speakers with the plug already attached, it's a plug and play decoder.  Then, there also the micro-tsunami, which does not have a plug, but will fit in HO or N scale locomotives, and an 8-pin plug can be soldered to the wires for installation in a loco with the 8-pin socket.

Theres also Loksound and Digitrax..  Loksound and digitrax both sound ok coming out of the box, but if you buy their respective decoder programmers, you can add custom sounds with a computer.

[scootbird]

First thanks for the replies to my question.

Geez..now I am more confused than ever.  I thought that HO guys had all this dcc stuff figured out.  Looks as if the DCC world is much more disjointed in HO than it is in N scale.  A "DCC" ready loco that can take an 8 or 9 pin decoder (with soldering) and there are 4 different types of the same numbered Soundtraxx decoder to choose from...makes one want to pull his hair out and yell WTF!