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MRC symphony 77 - any good???????? Track and electrical/DCC
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Regular poster 329 posts LPS L1 Regular poster 329 posts
LPS L1

Are those MRC symphony 77 separate sound control units any good? I know it is for 1 loco/train at a time but that suits me fine, also is the diesel sound specific to a certain type of loco - or or is it "generic" 

Thanks in advance, Skoti

SKOTI

Building a layout featuring a "what if" L&PS railway and any other shiny/grimy trains I can get my paws on.

lps_hea2.jpg 

 
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Prof_Klyzlr Moderator 7,962 posts
Prof_Klyzlr

Close, but not quite...

Dear Skoti,

Can't say I've used the Symphony 77 unit,
http://www.modelrectifier.com/search/product-view.asp?ID=7614

but my "Brooklyn : 3AM" uses a "sound-only" version MRC produced called a "Sound Box" (BYO analog throttle).
http://www.modelrectifier.com/resources/trainSound/0001022_0001023.pdf

If they both use the same sound-set, the diesel sound appears to be a generic-type, possibly EMD-esque. The sound itself has a notable bit of 8-bit "crispiness" in the tail of decaying sounds, like the bell-ring, but definitely acceptable compared to some "DCC-running-on-analog" options going-round.

The speed<> sound relationship is quite reasonable with my fleet of Atlas S-series switchers and Kato NW2. With some tweaking, I was able to send the "speaker level" audio-output from the Soundbox, via a simple buffer/mixer circuit, to a set of Altec 2.1 speakers mounted in the layout, and it sounds nice and fat...

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr 
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akarmani Regular poster 298 posts
akarmani

Was not impressed.

I heard it after receiving it for free.  it is still sitting on the shelf.
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Dave K skiloff Prolific poster 4,031 posts
Dave K skiloff

Agreed with akarmani

They had one in the LHS for demonstration and it didn't impress me at all.  I thought it would be great to have sound with DC, but it was not impressive at all.

Dave
Playing around in HO and N scale since 1976
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Prof_Klyzlr Moderator 7,962 posts
Prof_Klyzlr

Dear Akam, Skil, So if I may

Dear Akam, Skil, So if I may ask, what was it particularly that you didn't like? Was it the sound, the control, or something else? If it was the sound, what about it sounded wrong? Low resolution? Distortion? Missing frequencies? Choppy switching between sounds? Enquiring minds would like to know... Happy Modelling, Aim to Improve, Prof Klyzlr
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Ernest McGrath New member 1 post
Ernest McGrath

SYMPHONY 77

I have no problem with using it with both dc & dcc. I like the ALL-Aboard Sound.

 
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LPS L1 Regular poster 329 posts
LPS L1

good to know

It sounds (pun intended) like it will do what I want it to. -Prof nice to hear about the "3AM" (that's the layout that got me back into modelling) -akarmani, would you be willing to sell yours? Thanks again,

SKOTI

Building a layout featuring a "what if" L&PS railway and any other shiny/grimy trains I can get my paws on.

lps_hea2.jpg 

 
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Dave K skiloff Prolific poster 4,031 posts
Dave K skiloff

One man's treasure...

Prof, I'm a bit of an audio snob, being a musician and two years of recording school under my belt.  The sound was tinny and just lacked a broad enough frequency spectrum for any kind of realism.  Not sure what the bit rate is on the recordings, but it may very well sound much better with better speakers or a sub-woofer, but I think that would require some re-wiring that would void the warranty.  The other part of it is running the loco AND sound controller at the same time.  Much easier with a DCC throttle.

Dave
Playing around in HO and N scale since 1976
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Prof_Klyzlr Moderator 7,962 posts
Prof_Klyzlr

Dear Dave, Interesting, it

Dear Dave, Interesting, it may be that we're talking about different MRC units. I know that the "soundbox", "blackbox", and "symphony 77" are different animals with different featuresets. In the case of my "soundbox", there is no dbl-shuffling between units, the "soundbox" has a "DC power input" and "track input" which can be fed by DCC or analog. In Brooklyn's case' it simply takes a parallel track fed from the track buss, and revs up/down in automatic relationship to track voltage. Like you, I have my background experience and current day job in Pro Audio, and must admit that when Brooklyn was under development, realtime loco sound (without DCC) was a concern. The rest of the layout soundtrack was 48-tracks worth of carefully scratchbuilt and in-situ mixed 48kHz 24bit ambience, so the loco sound had to stand up and represent. In Brooklyn's case, a simple L-pad connected to the speaker output lines (no warranty-voiding mods required) gave a "line-level out" signal. This mono feed was then put thru a TFX2 SRS processor to provide a wider "stereo" signal. The resulting 2-channel/stereo analog out was buffered with a Pricom Dreamplayer MK1 (providing the ambience soundtrack) via a simpe 4-resistor 2st-in/1st-out "mixer" to an Altec 2.1 speaker rig mounted in the layout. (Satellites mounted in the roof of the module, woofer at frame level, and Motorola piezo tweeters in parallel with the Satellites, firing backwards _into_ the scene to localise the imaging FX within the module). The resulting "loco sound" signal covers 40Hz-8kHz, so plenty of bottom-end for most applications, (can't kickstart an earthquake with it, but that's what the warehouse rave party is for... )... I strongly suspect and reccomend the OP check carefully which MRC box they are picking up befor laying down the $$$... Happy Modelling, Aim to Improve, Prof Klyzlr PS even with the L-pad in play, it's still critical to turn the MRC speaker-level "volume" controldown to <20% of full volume. The power amp stage is not "hi fi" by any means, and once a signal is overdriven and "crispy"', there ain't much which can be done to "un-distort" it....
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akarmani Regular poster 298 posts
akarmani

I would sell

Send me an email @ longezart@gmail.com
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