MRC-1803 Sound Decoders

[SantaFeJim]

I am looking to install some inexpensive sound decoders into my Proto 2000 ALCO PA's. I have an A-B-B-A set with and one of the B units is a dummy.

Does anybody on this forum have experience with these decoders? Are you satisfied? Would you recommend another other than Tsunami that would fit inside these units w/o major modifications?

Thanks in advance.

Jim

[rhpd42002]

Jim,

I have NO experience installing sound decoders, but if K9 Wrangler (Karl) sees this post, I believe he'll respond, as he's done some PA sound installs.
IIRC, he used something other than MRC. Quite possibly Tsunami, but not sure.

Let us know how it goes if you do an install.

[Deleted]

Before anyone can give you an informed answer, you need to answer a couple of questions.

1. Vintage of the PA's - are these pre-sound blue box or newest production from Walthers built for sound provisions?

2. Why no Tsunami?

First, I'd stay way far away from MRC. Even the current decoders do not have good sound. Folks rushed out and bought the MRC decoder for the Atlas Gensets and most folks weren't happy. Second, stay away from the Digitrax sound. Third, many aren't real happy with QSI.

Most are going to tell you that Tsunami and Lok Sound are the best for sound and they are correct. But depending on the vintage of the PA's, no matter what decoder you choose, you still may be hacking, filling and fitting on the chassis. I installed sound in a late Life-Like(last run before Walthers absorbed LL) production E9 and the installation was a confidence builder....aka it was difficult. Walthers sound equipped locomotives use decoder boards specifically made for locomotive as far as fit and connections. I had one of the latest E9's and the Tsunami inside isn't close to resembling an aftermarket Tsunami.

[atsfan]

I am guessing these will be the units before they were repowered with EMD engines by ATSF?

[SantaFeJim]

Jim -

They are the pre-sound blue box, and the reason I am asking about the MRC-1803 is because the speaker is already attached to the circuit board. There is very limited space in the rear section of these powered units so having the speaker pre-mounted tells me that no hacking is needed to enlarge the space.

It looks like installation requires only removing the old board, replacing it with the new and then replacing the headlight bulb with an LED.




Jim

[upwpfan]

Folks;

Think twice about MRC and its line of decoders. They do not make their internal programing available so that Decoder Pro files can be generated easily. This makes them difficult if not impossible to program using Decoder Pro. I do not know about their recent products but every body I know who purchased Athearn locomotives that contained MRC decoders has had major problems with them.

Regards

Jere Ingram

[Hergy]

The advertising dept. and the technical dept. are not on the same wave length. Read the advertising on the Genset decoder. Now read MRR review of that decoder. MRR, who never found a product it didn't like, was at best lukewarm. So far, the score is MRC 4, Me 0. 4 for 4 have been crap, 2 Challengers, a Big Boy, and a 4-8-4 will have to be replaced. Can't read any of the CV values, can't use with JMRI. Sound is terrible. Did I leave anything out?

Now I'm sure somebody will respond that their MRC decoder has worked for years. Well, good for you. Consider yourself one of the lucky ones. No more MRC for me.

[Deleted]

Feb 19, 2013 6:59:31 GMT -8 SantaFeJim said:

Jim -

They are the pre-sound blue box, and the reason I am asking about the MRC-1803 is because the speaker is already attached to the circuit board. There is very limited space in the rear section of these powered units so having the speaker pre-mounted tells me that no hacking is needed to enlarge the space.

It looks like installation requires only removing the old board, replacing it with the new and then replacing the headlight bulb with an LED.




Jim

Replacing the headlight with an LED isn't going to be a drop in replacement on this board. The board is set up to re-use the current LL light bulbs in the headlight and Mars. I've looked high and low for some specs on this decoder and I must assume its a matter of national security! If you want to use LED's with have a different voltage draw than the LL bulbs your going to need to tap the 12V lighting outputs (if this board has those) and use resistors to reduce the voltage for the LED's. I don't know the voltage of the old LL bulbs.

While doing the Google shuffle looking for information on this decoder, MRC posted videos of a P2K PA equipped with their board. I'm not at all attempting to be Debbie downer about this MRC board, but it didn't sound like a gurgling ALCO. In fact I can't say for sure what it sounded like....

I also noticed on MRC's site they no longer list this decoder.

Here is MRC's current list.

www.modelrec.com/train-controls/decoderschart.asp

[Chad]

Jim,

I installed sound in the same vintage P2K unit. If memory serves I removed a weight from the back top of the frame. That left a huge amount of room for a Railmaster bass reflex speaker. For the decoder I used a LokSound mainly because they do have a very nice Alco 244 sound decoder. If I were to do it again I would pick a Tsunami. I left the original bulbs in the unit and even with the Gyra light they looked really very good.

I had a total of three different engines with MRC decoders in them and well let's just say I sold them and will never again try MRC. Some my love them but not me.

[spookyac47]

Feb 18, 2013 15:57:45 GMT -8 SantaFeJim said:

I am looking to install some inexpensive sound decoders into my Proto 2000 ALCO PA's. I have an A-B-B-A set with and one of the B units is a dummy.

Does anybody on this forum have experience with these decoders? Are you satisfied? Would you recommend another other than Tsunami that would fit inside these units w/o major modifications?

Thanks in advance.

Jim

Would suggest strongly that you go to Bruce Petrarca's (former developer and owner of Litchfield Station) website. It has a lot of useful information on DCC and installs . . . ESPECIALLY on the early Life-Like PA locomotives. Do not install a decoder before reading the information on Bruce's website

www.mrdccu.com/install/hods/Life-Like-Proto2000-PA-828040.htm

I have some of the early Life-Like PA locomotives and can confirm that they draw bunches of current . . . not healthy for HO scale decoders of any kind . . .

I have no experience with MRC decoders but from all the bad press they got, especially when installed in Athearn Genesis locomotives, I chose not to indulge . . .

[MONSTERRAILROAD]

Man man man. I can't stand MRC sound decoders! I tried to have an open mind a couple of months ago and decided to give the new one a try to go in the Athearn GP38-2. I was interested because of the price OF COURSE! It was about $45 with a speaker! Well I did a video and it ended with me removing the decoder, cutting it in half with a Dremel and installing a Tsunami Decoder in it. I gave it a fair try, but it SUCKS! Bottom line is MRC sucks. I will simply stick to the more expensive but more reliable Soundtraxx Tsunami decoders. But go ahead and buy an MRC for yourself and get your own opinion. You may end up liking them. i doubt it, but give it a try if you do not want to take our word for it.

[bnsf971]

I swore off MRC sound decoders when one of mine caught fire on the club's layout, and burned the F unit it was installed in to the ground. I still have the sooty frame and blackened decoder, or the puddle of melted electronics that used to be a decoder, in a box in the train room. Every time someone offers to sell me one, I open the box, look at the remains, close the box, and decline graciously.

[kentuckysouthernrwy]

I've used a QSI Quantum in an AB set of proto FAs and a QSI Titan in a pair of Proto PA/PB Alco's. The FAs run well with both powered units running off of one decoder with speakers in each.

If I recall correctly the PAs also are MU'd with one decoder and run and sound fine to me. Both pairs have speakers in both units

I don't have any photos of the installations.

Andy Keeney has a set of Alco FA/FB/FA that have a sound only decoder in the dummy B unit . I think it's a soundtraxx, it is very sensitive to the power pickup.

[Mark R.]

I checked out that link to Bruce's page .... according to that article, the PA had dual prime movers ! Where does he get his information from

Aside from that, he is correct in that the early PA's did have a very high amp draw motor. Be sure to test yours BEFORE you install any decoders ! Very early in the game, Lifelike and even Walthers were providing free replacement motors for the PA. I lucked out on that deal and got three new motors for all my PA's.


Mark.

[Deleted]

The MRC 1803 decoder has been discontinued and was replaced by the 1902 which MRC advertised for both the EMD E9 and ALCO PA. Interesting....this has since been replaced by the 1922 again advertised for both the EMD and ALCO. It too now has been discontinued by MRC.

I don't know how you can have a decoder that fills the bill for both an EMD and ALCO. Neither locomotive sounds like the other, so what sound exactly is MRC pumping through the speaker?

[bnsf971]

Feb 20, 2013 11:34:52 GMT -8 @australianterrier said:

The MRC 1803 decoder has been discontinued and was replaced by the 1902 which MRC advertised for both the EMD E9 and ALCO PA. Interesting....this has since been replaced by the 1922 again advertised for both the EMD and ALCO. It too now has been discontinued by MRC.

I don't know how you can have a decoder that fills the bill for both an EMD and ALCO. Neither locomotive sounds like the other, so what sound exactly is MRC pumping through the speaker?

the decoder has both sounds, and you change sounds by changing a cv.

[Paul Cutler III]

I'm in a large HO club (over 1200 registered locomotives), and over the years, we've had a 50% failure rate with MRC decoders. Either they fail to program, fail to run at all, or cease running after a period of time. These are not good odds. In fact, they are terrible odds. No other DCC manufacturer has their kinds of problems. All that and they don't even sound that good with a lot of white noise for "air" & "steam" sounds, and they've been known to fake a sound effect (the old infamous "Alco 244" in an S-2 trick). M.R.C. = J-U-N-K, at least as far as their DCC decoders go.

OTOH, there's nothing wrong with their speakers. I used one in my old P2K PA-1 sound installation. I bought the MRC speaker and enclosure on the recommendation from Gary at www.traintekllc.com. I combined it with the shrink wrapped Tsunami board. I tucked the capacitor under the headlight in the nose, the board went behind the cab in the decoder well (I had to modify the plastic cab interior so it fit), and the MRC speaker went face down where the old DC board was (which I had removed). I made no modifcations to get the speaker to fit. The MRC speaker and enclosure fit perfectly.

[railandsail]

I guess I am just not a sound knowledgeable person. today I dug out some old LL/Proto PA diesels I had. One pair had factory installed (I assume) MRC sound decoders installed in them. I thought they sounded great, perhaps a little loud, but otherwise they ran well, and sounded good.In fact I think their horns were superior to a number of other decoders I've heard. And they certainly make for a clean installation.

I have a second pair of these PA's that have Soundtraxx DSD-AT100LC decoders in them. Unfortunately only one of those engines have speaker wired to the board, with no enclosure. So it hard to compare I guess, but the MRC decoded sound much better. Perhaps I need to hook up 2 speakers to this pair, and make some sort of temporary enclosures to get a better idea.

Is it the general opinion that the Soundtraxx decoders would be the better choice even considering its older age also?

[lvrr325]

I don't think any Proto engine came with sound until the RS27 came along and Walthers took the line over. If they did they certainly wouldn't come with MRC.

[rrpolice]

Brian has a habit of necroing a lot of very old topics. But this one belongs in Electronics/DCC section.

[grahamline]

Jan 17, 2024 2:23:17 GMT -8 lvrr325 said:

I don't think any Proto engine came with sound until the RS27 came along and Walthers took the line over. If they did they certainly wouldn't come with MRC.

I have a Proto 2000 "Limited Edition" GP20 with "factory installed DCC and sound." The copyright on the Operations Manual is 2005. The sound is QSI Quantum System. Don't konw if this was before or after the RS27, but I think it was before. Mine is UP #493.

[kentuckysouthernrwy]

OK, 11 years later....what was the question?

Lots of things have changed in all that time. I've changed over to installing ESU Loksound as I add to my power overabundance. QSI I used prior is pretty much out of circulation and support is said to be hard to get. Those units are in "temporary" storage. I have a grey box Proto AB set of F7s with Factory QSI sound units. Should probably get them out and quit buying new stuff. In another 11 years, I'll probably be dust on someone's keyboard...