First question: how OC are you about being able to control every last light, sound, and super-fine-tune motor performance of your locomotives?
If the answer is “very,” then your easiest option is Titan/G-wire combination. Plug it in, set the Titan for Airwire control, and you’re off and running. Airwire/Phoenix would be my next choice, but it’s not "plug-n-play. It is easy enough to wire in given that all the pertinent connections can be made to the solder pads on the socket board. Airwire, in their new G-3 instructions, also shows how to use a HO Tsunami decoder as a sound system as a less expensive option than the Phoenix. The Tsunami is fairly full-featured in its own right in terms of sounds, though I’m not positive some of the BEMF load-sensitive features will work correctly using the board in this environment. It’s on my “short list” of things to experiment with, though. Note that the sound volume of the HO Tsunami will likely be less than that of the Phoenix, QSI, or other dedicated large scale board.
Another slightly unorthodox method would be to use the G-2 as a dedicated 3-amp DCC command station, then power the motor/sound decoder of your choice via that. The decoder in this case can be a plug-n-play decoder, or you can wire it directly as well. Soundtraxx will be releasing their 4-amp Tsunami in a matter of weeks, and there are others as well. (I played with an ESU LokSound board at a show the other day that was pretty slick!) Note: you must use the older (now discontinued, naturally) G-2 board for this, as the newer G-3 board only allows 1.5 amps on the DCC booster output. According to QSI’s web site, you can wire the G-wire receiver to act as a generic DCC command station which can be used to run any DCC decoder. There are some caveats, as you’ve got to be able to locate more than just the track input connections on the decoder. I e-mailed QSI for more information on this, but have yet to get a response. Someday, someone will introduce a dedicated high-amp on-board receiver/command station…
If you’re not quite so OC about controlling every last piece of technology, but still want top-drawer sound and easy control of this and other locos, then the Aristo Revolution/Phoenix combination is a good one to look at. A few caveats with this; the Revolution may or may not pass battery voltage forward to the electronics in the K-27 without jumpers from the battery inputs to the B+ and Ground terminals on the socket board. I’ve always had to jumper the connections, though from what I’ve read, the plug-in board is supposed to make that connection by itself. Try it. If you get the headlights and cooling fan when you turn on the power, then it’s working. Otherwise, jumper the connections. Without that power, you don’t get power to the optical chuff circuitry. You do need the inverter circuit on the chuff trigger mentioned above.
If you just want a very vanilla sound, then you can use Aristo’s steam sound that comes equipped on their decoders. Not my cup of tea, but it’s there as an option.
And as Tony mentioned, his control will work very well with Phoenix as well. You lose some of the motor control customization, a few external trigger capabilities, and the ability to easily consist locos, but if you don’t need it, it’s not an issue.
In terms of the sounds themselves, quite frankly, I don’t think you’re going to be disappointed with the sounds from any of the big players. Most of them now let you change sounds anyway, so if you don’t like the whistle, change it for one you do like. Depending on the particular system, you can either swap out individual components, or you have to swap out the entire sound file. You can hear samples on the manufacturer’s web sites, though not all their sounds are represented. I’ve been known to spend hours on end in the workshop with my loco connected to my PC “tweaking” the sounds for optimal performance. (I highly recommend getting the programming interface for any system you buy if there’s one available.) Most also have some degree of “load sensitive” chuff (or an emulation thereof) where the sound of the chuff varies in response to acceleration, deceleration, speed, etc. The amount of this effect can usually be dialed in via the programming interface.
Cost? Airwire/Phoenix and Titan/G-wire are both going to run you around $300 for the combination. Going with the Revolution/Phoenix drops maybe $50 off of that. (All prices do not include the cost of the transmitter.)
Quirks:
No system is without fault… Here are some that I’ve noticed in terms of sound control.
Revolution: The function triggers do not fire quickly enough to trigger the “short” whistle recordings used by Phoenix on some of their sound files. Not all sound files have different “short” and “long” whistle recordings (they are–thankfully–recorded from the same whistle), but for those that do, you cannot access them via the Revolution function triggers. (Oddly, if you switch the whistle to “latching” instead of “momentary,” and quickly double-punch the function button, you can… Go figure! But that’s counter-intuitive when blowing a whistle…)
Titan: The Titan also has separate “long” and “short” whistle recordings. Some don’t sound remotely the same, like they were recorded from different whistles. Trust your ear. If it sounds quirky, pick a different one.
While I’m glad to see the Titan now include the automatic directional whistle signals, there appears no way of actually adjusting the timing of them. On one, they sound very slowly; almost a full second between each toot. On another, it’s quicker. The CV that would seem to adjust it doesn’t have any effect at all.
G-wire: Depending on the board being controlled, there’s sometimes a “pregnant pause” between when you press the whistle button and when you hear actually play. The degree to which this delay exists seems dependent on the board being controlled. It’s not long; maybe half a second to a second. I have not tried the G-wire with the Titan, so I cannot speak to that combination. With the G-wire/Quantum combination, it was noticeable, and a little less so on the G-wire/Airwire/Phoenix combination.
Airwire: When using the Airwire with the older Quantum boards, sometimes the whistle gets “stuck.” I have not noticed this with the new Titan boards. With the Phoenix (and this could just be my particular transmitter), I’ll press one function button and get the sound for another.
Phoenix: Adjusting the Johnson Bar effect can be tricky. Too much, and your loco gets a tad flatulent when it slows down. Too little, and there’s no audible difference at all. There are factors that work in conjunction with one another in terms of the light/heavy chuff values and the Johnson bar effect values. I have yet to detect any correlation, and every sound file behaves differently.I just play with it until it sounds good.
Also, the “blower hiss” only comes on when the generator is not running, and is inconsistent when it does come on. There are times when I stop the locomotive, and it’s absolutely silent, then after a while the hiss starts up again. Since most of my locos are pre-electricity, I can’t really have the generator running. However, I do keep it running very quietly in the background (about 20%) so there’s at least some sound playing when the loco’s stopped.
None of these quirks are remotely dealbreakers, though I have been known to swap control systems around to have an Airwire board to interface with the Phoenix sound files that have “short” whistles I particularly like. They’re just little details.
Bottom line from my perspective, I don’t think you’re going to go wrong with any of the combinations mentioned above. They’re all 95% solid, and the K is such a smooth runner in its own right (even without Rodney’s gearbox) that you’ll get good control out of it regardless. If you’ve got steep grades and like to “turn 'em on and watch 'em run,” you may find the motor control on the Airwire or Titan boards, with their BEMF speed control, able to keep things on a more even keel.
Later,
K
