# ESU Loksound review



## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

There aren't many choices for sound in large scale. Phoenix and Dallee, for non-DCC. For people running DCC, Massoth, Zimo, ESU, QSI, Phoenix. I've been waiting well over a year for QSI. I liked their old sound motor decoders, and bought a bunch of them. But they stopped making them over a year ago in anticipation of the new "Titan" decoder, which has been "six weeks away" for about 60 weeks now. 

So I got fed up, and started looking around. For DCC, I rejected Phoenix--they have excellent sound files, but the lack of motor control is a downside--why wire a second board? And most DCC decoders automate the response to load, so that the chuff/motor sound varies automatically when the loco hits a grade, for example. As has been pointed out, you can trigger this effect with Phoenix by pushing a button each time you hit a grade, but I'm not interested in that feature. So Phoenix is out.

Massoth I decided was too expensive. The E-motion XLS goes for about $280. I'm sure it's very good, but I liked it better when I was paying $100 less. Zimo is less expensive and gets great reviews. But they have a limited sound library--you have to pay extra for specific sound files, and the free ones can't be heard online. The website is confusing. Their most fully featured LS decoder goes for about $244, plus the cost of the sound file. It has great features--it will drive a pulsed smoke generator, for example. But I decided against that one.

That leaves ESU. The LoksoundXL goes for about $185, and comes with screw terminals. Zimo makes an equivalent decoder with pins, no terminals, so ESU it is.

I've installed two of them, both steam, and have some observations

1. Sound files are excellent--well recorded, clean, not "processed" sounding. There's no reverb on the whistle, which I'm glad of; there's no obvious artifacts of compression or lossiness. The chuff is much better, I think, than QSI's which I always found to be ok but overprocessed. It has the same variation in response to load as QSI does.

2. Function controls are excellent. The QSI board had outputs for the headlights, and thats it. The Loksound xl has multiple function outputs, and you can adjust what they do. For example, you can set the lights to strobe or gyro effect, you can dim them, and you can set them to flicker like a firebox. Nice effect, even if not prototypical.

3. Motor control is excellent--smooth and even at low speed, none of the chattering or stuttering at very low speed that was often a problem with qsi 

On the downside, there is no way to control the volume of individual sounds without the "Lokpoegrammer," a $150 piece of Windows only gear. The sound file n one of the two decoders I bought has some sounds WAY out of balance. For example, when you hit the headlight button the dynamo kicks in--at a volume higher than the chuff. I eventually had to map it to a different button, when what I should have been able to do was bring the volume on that alone way down. The dynamo sounded great--just way to loud. Similarly, there's the sound of a fireman shoveling--too loud.

Other than that, I'm very impressed 
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## Cougar Rock Rail (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks for the review Lownote. I've never tried an ESU, but those that I've spoken to that have tried them really like them. I'm a bit surprised you can't alter the individual sound volumes, durations and cycles through CV's though...that's something I've been used to doing for ages with Massoth. ESU just announced some sort of universal programmer new for 2012-- I wonder if that will work for you without spending all that extra money? I can see you needing the special programmer if you are downloading new firmware though, that's pretty standard. 
A couple of questions: what central station are you using, and how many speed steps are you running? Any chance of a video showing the slow speed performance? How many CV's do they have for adjusting the bemf and slow speed control? Do they have a switching speed option? 

Thanks, 
Keith


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## beavercreek (Dec 12, 2008)

Great to see a review comparing the different sound dcc decoders at the lower price level. I think that I totally go along with the meat of the review but as to the Lokprogammer being needed to reprogram the Loksound XL board, there is the option of the 'Sprog' with the JRMI software and this is pretty inexpensive and will work on Macs as well. I have managed to access all boards with this set up. As long as you download the chart from the respective websites, you have the key to all the CV settings on the different makes of boards. Of course this does not solve any issues of not being able to change volume settings on the 'fly'.


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

I think you misunderstand me, or I wasn't clear--I can program CVs on my bench using JMRI and a Digitrax PR3. A sprog would work too. I can change all the usual cvs, and adjust the volume level of the bell, the whistle, the overall sound, and the "auxilary sounds." And I can program it on the fly, on the main--that all works fine.

What I can't do is turn down individual sounds within the category of "auxilary sounds," like the guys shoveling coal or the dynamo. You need the programmer to do that, apparently, and you need the lokprogrammer to load a new sound file into the decoder, as with QSI.

It's quite a good decoder other than that


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## Dan Pierce (Jan 2, 2008)

The Ximo pin version does have a connector/s available from Train-Li-usa. And the MX695 has an external volume control that can be added, but needs to have 3 wires soldered on the board. 
Runs in analog mode just fine. Has 3 reed switch inputs and 4 servo controls plus SUSI.


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

Zimo is next on my list to try. Wish they had a better/clearer web presence


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