The TCS WOW sound decoder knocked it out of the park. It sounds so much better. I wasn't expecting that at all.

I was amazed how well the WOW decoder sounder sounded, particularly with the bell and the engine start sequence.

Good evening, I have watched many of your videos . I have been in and out of the hobby for many years, I was brought into it by my father and grandfather sometime in the 60s, maybe even late 50s. You do a really good job with products, I commend you for that. I would love love to spend time with you as a intern, maybe picking your brain, or just sitting around and listen to you at home while you’re working on your railroad, it’s near and dear to my heart, because of what my grandfather taught me. God bless you and stay safe

Just wanted to say thanks for your patience and assistance with your help with my decoder. I’m taking it very easy and trying very hard to do it correctly. Thanks again. You were very helpful. 👍

Enjoying the difference between the power. Nice brake down of the units.

These 21 pin decoders are the way to go. Thanks for the videos, I've switched to decoder buddy for all my locos.

Thanks for another great show. For sound decoders I have always preferred the Loksound decoders not only for their great sound but also the features that ESU offers such as the decoder can set the Back- EMF automatically and the ability to put any sound they offer on any decoder.

The WOW gets ny nod on balance. Bell has that sound of the fixed bell with no vibration, and this decoder seems to be the only one with a really distinguishable engine wind-up {'va - vaa- vaaa - vroooom') and level-off as it starts to move.

Awesome Video! All that work sure paid off! Those E units sound and move so real! Cheers! 🍺🍺

I don't think this is even a competition, Tsunami wins by a mile. I have been so happy with the Tsunamis I have put in my locos. They're easy to install, sound fantastic and don't take an advanced degree in rocket science to program like LokSounds do. The WowSound is really good too though.

Very interesting indeed! Thanks for sharing!

Excellent informative video I enjoyed listening to the different decoders, for me soundtrax decoders are no 1

Really impressed with the sound of the Tcs wow sound decoder followed by the Tsunami 2 and Loc sound last listened with my JBL Bluetooth headphones to really make my opinion about these

Thanks for the testing. hard to say what I think sounds the best. they are all great. I don't think you can lose on either. I usually go with the Company that shows the most all around attention in their products and thier customers.

Nicely done Larry. I would have liked you to do a side by side sequential comparison...3 locos side by side doing their bells each in turn...then the same with the horns etc. that would have made it easier to compare. Perhaps a quick addendum? Thank you you for all you do to help us to achieve better railroads.

Huge ESU fan here. The Soundtraxx ain’t bad but I can’t see myself doing personal installs with that or TCS mainly because of the ESU features and audio quality. I would buy Athearn engines with Soundtraxx decoders though and that’s about it; any factory ESU installation is a win for me

Super comparison, Larry. I vote for the TCS sounds. Not liking their Mars light as much as LokSound but it gets down to the sounds are what's most important.

In my opinion, the LOK was the overall best package. It had lighting that was stabilized and the Mars light looked very realistic. The Mars wasn't just a blinking led light. It had depth. The Tsunami II was second, it had good sound but lighting was a little weak. Then the WOW sound. I felt that the sound needed a little more refinement, some more depth and the lighting was also a little weak. When it comes to realistic matched sounds, I think the prime mover startup sounds as long as they sound typical are just fine. Maybe 1% of railfans can actually tell what a particular loco sounds like starting up. The other 99% of us just think that if it sounds decent, then it sounds OK apart from Steam or Turbines, it's all good. The bell and the horn are the true test. The bell has to sound like that bell, and the horn, like that horn. That's where the moneys at.

Out of the three of them, I think the ESU had the best sounding prime mover which actually surprised me as I am not generally a fan of how ESU decorders sound. The horn and bell on the Tsunami2 was better by far than the other two, that came as no surprise as in my opinion that has been their strongest point since they introduced the new decoders. To me the horn and bell are the most important, they are what catch your attention the most, both in real life and with our models.

Thanks Larry, I'm leaning with the Loksound I know you need a loksound programmer I believe. 🐾🚂 BearCreek Cov. KY.

The WOW has the reverb in the horn and really sounds like a 567 should sound full throttle.

A very interesting test considering none of the decoders were "fine tuned". Out if the box I liked the Tsunami overall but I really like the hint of reverb on the WOW's horn to give it a slight echo effect.

While all 3 are fine, I think the Loksound 5 edges out the other two on sound quality. However, overall I prefer the Tsunami 2 for its other features. I find it to be much more user friendly and have a more useful range of functions and utilities. I have not used a Wowsound decoder; it could be even better for all I know.

I think they all sound good, even if a little different than each other. I think what you should do is compare each of them to a real locomotive to know which one is most authentic.

I assume you had to replace split gears on all of these? Very good video. Makes decoder choosing much easier! I'll probably be going with the TCS.

Both ESU and WOW horns did the unnatural thing where a second short horn interrupts the first to sound off, that’s a mood killer for me. I liked ESU’s 567 sound better though, but this is straight out of the box. TSU’s eq can shape that sound back up. And what was that erratic sound syncing with the ESU? I shouldn’t have to remember to let the rpms ramp down. No good. Overall in-wowed with WOW. But for true comparison, we really needed to as you suggested and switch decoders out on the buddy so the speakers/ enclosures are exactly the same.

How about a similar sound-off for steam locomotives?

16:02 For those of you who don't want to burn 16 minutes getting to the actual point of the SOUND video...

Nice video! I didn't see anything on TCS about the dual 567 sound file availability?

Larry, What type of horns did the Southern have on the E6 and the E7? The models don't have Nathan M5s. I would say all the decoders are similar enough that it is a matter of personal preference, unless you can get one type much cheaper than the other two.

Seemed the sound on the TCS lagged. Understand that horn for the testing was all same across the board. However the m5 is definitely wrong for the two single chime on the E6. for operation purposes the sounds need to be drastically cut down. Sticking with ESU for the win.

I know this is a older video. I have a question about the Prime Mover startup sounds. Is Tsunami proto typical with the warning sound prior to engine startup?

Noticed a pair of SW1's background, are they equipped with sound, which decoder did you install?

Couple of things to note. ESU put enough forethought into the decoder to use a higher frequency PWM signal to drive the lights.. why would you care? For the same reason he had to put the disclaimer that the flicker wasn't visible to the human eye, only on camera. If you're in a club or will be having your equipment show up in video or pictures or just for your own messing around, you want it to look right on video as well as in person. From an engineering perspective that is extremely easy to fix there is nothing preventing the other manufacturers from changing that, other than not having even thought about it. Gotta give it to the Germans, sometimes overengineered has its advantages. The wow sound decoder really had an egregious error on the air compressor.. what E unit ever used a GE AC compressor (the whoop sound)? Maybe that's what compressor was selected incorrectly in the sound setup, I don't know, but, it isn't correct. The ESU actually does another nifty subtle feature with their compressors as well in that the compressor tap tap tap sound varies with the speed of the prime mover, even through RPM changes, that's some serious attention to detail that none of the others do. The Wow sound horn was an interesting mix... sounded powerful but somehow flat... but... the very slight echo at the end was really nice.. neither of the other have that, now would you be able to hear that with track noise as it's moving, I really don't know. The Tsunami on startup has an annoying obvious loop for the warning bell... you can hear it wasn't looped correctly because you hear it come back around like 5 times before it fires the motor off. Subtle, but once you hear it, you can't not hear it after that. Of the three I think the ESU did the best job of matching notching to motion... and that's a real stickler for me. I do recognize and understand it's virtually impossible to get the models to act like the real thing even with back emf or looking at motor current to get that right.

How about a video, or two, on installing decoders in steam engines? Thanks! :-)

To the trained ear of a retired engineer, I can safely say that all of those were done with prime movers that were not loading!!!! The prime movers were in neutral, and it ruins it all for me!!!!!! If these mumbskulls would call up the Railroad and tell them that they need to record a load test on a given prime mover it would suddenly become a GO for me. Until then forget it!!!!!! A loaded 645E3 sounds radically different vs one that is just revving up in neutral!!!! I talked with TCS about this, and they said that version 5 would remedy this, I haven't heard V5 yet, so I don't know if they fixed it or not???? All of my decoders will be stationary, and the sound will follow the train around (if somebody comes up with a prime mover that sounds like it is loading) I will use polarity controlled SCRs with magnet switches that open and close when when the lead locomotive passes over the switches.

Great video and test! I liked the LokSound easily the best, followed by the TCS WOW, then Tsunami2. The TCS and Tsunami have more of a hollow sound to them, where as the LokSound is very clear. The TCS sound seemed to match the speed of the locomotive better than the Tsunami2 also. I wonder how much all of this is the sound file itself vs. the decoder. I think if you did another test of a different sound file on these locomotives (upload a different one temporarily), it would give you the answer. I use all LokSound in my locos. regards, NS.

Can you tell me exactly which SoundTraxx decoder you used here? (model #)

How did you get the soundtracks tsunami 2 sound to cut her to start up and shut down I can't seem to figure that out because every time I put it on the tracks if fires up automatically and when I press function 8 it just mutes it it doesn't shut down the locomotive the proper way

As long as SoundTraxx decoders continue to be "problematic" when trying to interface them with Decoder Pro/JMRI they are a "no-go" for me.

I prefer Tsunami slightly.

I like the tcs wow a lot better

Thanks for the video. Tsunami2 by far is the best sounding followed by WOW. I am not a fan of LokSound and have nothing but trouble with their decoders. Problems such as causing other locomotives to intermittently stop, start, lurch forward or reverse and even do nothing. If I buy a new Loco with LokSound out it goes and I replaced with Tsunami's. I donate the old LokSound to a randomly selected model railroad club anonymously.

Southern didn’t use Mars lights. Wow sound is great. I like LOK system better

In a 27.40 minute video its 16.0 before the introduction is over and something happens. I have trouble staying interested in all your videos because of the excess dialog, which is a shame because the information shared is quality and valuable. I believe most model railroaders are well above primary education level and don't need the depth of introduction.

Annoys me how the movement and sound aren't realistic. Real locos don't start to move exactly at the same time the engine starts to increase revs. There is such a thing as inertia. Sadly none of the decoder manufacturers seem to have heard of this.

Excellent presentation. The Tsunami sounded best to me surprised thinking the WoW would be better. BTW, did you compare the BEMF function among the 3? I really enjoy that with the WoW but don't have a TSU with it . . yet.