The first time I experienced N scale sound was when the loco owner was trying to compensate for the poor sound quality by cranking up the volume. It kinda killed the idea for me - both the crappy quality and the ear bending noise ( i have a considerable hearing loss in one end of the spectrum and bat hearing on the other). But during a recent visit to Mark Dance's layout, I had a reconsidering. His layout has qualities that separate scenes, and their sounds, and he keeps his loco volumes down. So I think a layout designed with acoustics in mind could be enjoyable, and for me that would include ambient sounds of nature, industry, and community; but not the cheesy module variety.
On that note, Mark and I got into an interesting conversation about the technology of hand held throttles with sound in the throttle, rather than the loco. He said he'd tried it but felt it wasn't satisfactory, the sound not being with the loco, in your hand instead. I wish I could sample it, because the economical advantage of digital sound based in throttles makes more dollars and sense to me than 30+ in-loco DCC sound set ups that cost as much if not more than the loco they are installed therein. Not too mention the electronic know how required of sound cards, which I lack and have little interest in.
