Thank you for catching that. I looked through their new letter that went out yesterday and these units weren't included in the notes. Even though these are outside of my era, I am excited to see Rapido offering these units. They'll make a fine addition to my display case (if it's ever built). The only slight issue I've noticed is there is some road number overlap with the first run. I was hoping since there were 8 High Hoods we would get the other 4 numbers in the B&Y offering. Oh well I don't see an ETA date yet, but I would throw out summer of 2026 as an initial guess. MSRP is $359.95 for Loksound equipped units and $239.95 for standard DC.
Well... don't that knock yer hat in the creek. Tempting. A pair of those (sound equipped) could make a nice detour train every now and then. However, a friend bought a pair of the O&W with DCC/Sound. He brought them by my place to test run them and for me to set them up with momentum/etc if needed. Definitely needed. (Jack Rabbit out of the box.) If I'm not mistaken, those come with ESU "LokSound" from Rapido? Anyway, for the first time ever, the decoder of the one we placed on the track would not accept CV adjustments that I was attempting with my NCE via "Program On Main". Screw that. I'm not going to invest in factory sound equipped engines that appear to require ESU's program in order to adjust basic CV's.
Andre, I totally agree with you. I have the O/W with ESU Loksound. I am not about to invest in a ESU Programmer and the time to learn and use it. It is what it is and put it behind a Tsunami 2 decoder engine to lash up.
I've stated my distaste for ESU several times before on this forum, but I have a new experience that I want to tack on. Has anyone else tried speed matching with one of these decoders? Just like everything else with ESU, it is an overly complicated nightmare because they feel the need to out think themselves. After this experience my opinion on ESU has shifted again. I no longer KIND OF regret buying models with ESU Loksound, I now FULLY regret spending money on their garbage product. I'm about ready to rip out every single Loksound decoder in my fleet and light them all on fire. If any of our other members are on the fence about buying the sound version, just save your self the trouble and buy the DC version and add tsunami to it at home.
It's even simpler for me. I don't like sound (except in my one steam engine) because I don't like the noise. GS
I have several locos that I installed ESU Loksound decoders in which I have very good results with. But these where the earlier versions which where the Select Direct series. The latest versions like you said are "Overly Complicated"and require their "Loksound Programmer".
Sometimes the best way to stay ahead of the curve is to remain still. Everything comes back around eventually.
ESU: It's a shame, because all the ESU sounds I've heard (and own) sound great. Including the FDL prime mover in ESU's U-boat sound samples. I don't think I've ever heard a TSU2 U-boat clip, but it would have its work cut out to better the ESU sound for same. Andre
I won't deny that the ESU units sound really good. My gripes all revolve around programming. I have a couple Athearn Genesis Dash 9s factory equipped with Tsunami 2. I could try and do a side by side demo for the group at some point.
The real issue with Speed Matching is that ESU's Speed Table works like no one else's. You have no control of Step 1 or Step 28 in the Speed Table itself, and their Speed Table setup defaults to a non-linear speed step increase. ONLY ESU does this. On another note, if you buy these as DC units, Rapido says the speakers are already installed, AND, I will determine, fix and share my findings for use with SoundTraxx Tsunami II decoders as I did with the first release in orange and white. I imagine they should be using the same motherboard designed by ESU.
Sprint Creek Model Trains has offered the following pricing: Sound Unit MSRP $349.95 Spring Creek Model Trains price $291 Pre-Order price $287.27 Non-Sound MSRP $239.95 Spring Creek Model Trains price $200 Pre-Order price $194.00
