Super Bass Locomotives

Actually most of the newer Legacy version use a single 40mm baby fatboy. The difference in minimal to my ears. If there is a difference its in the sound file. The enclosure can only help to small degree. Some of the earliest versions had a 50mm fatboy but they may not fit in most diesels.

Pete

Yeah I own a few super bass units, its nothing more than an enclosure over the speaker,  its not more speakers.

Funny you should ask. I just got my first super bass unit, SF yellow bonnet F7B #2233819, and ran it with the AA set just a couple of days ago. In my opinion, yes the sound is noticeably different. It is louder and does seem to have a bit lower bass. But I wouldn’t say it was a game-changer for me and probably wouldn’t buy another if a regular dummy B unit was available. Unfortunately for my recent SF “blue bonnet” pre-order the only B options are powered and super bass, so I will have one other super bass unit in my future.

I have one for an Alco FA, as Norton says the difference is minimal.  I decided to run the Superbass separate from the AA units, I get the sound from the one A unit and the sound from the Superbass .   I start the AA units and then start the Superbass unit. It does sound better doing it that way.  Volume and smoke of course have to be adjusted separately.  

The biggest plus for sound in the B unit is having another engine with sound. Best is when all units have sound. I have never been impressed with volume from Railsounds lite boards. Railsounds 4 or 5 driving a 50m Fatboy will blow Railsounds light away. Put that system in an ABA and the neighbors will start yelling to turn the noise down.

Pete

They’re nothing special. I got a B-unit SuperBass with with the Legacy Baldwin Sharks they produced a couple of years ago. Honestly in hindsight I would have rather gotten the powered B-unit. The SuperBass units just rattle and buzz a bit too much. I feel like with some patience and thought a wave guide could maybe be fit in there somehow. That would probably help deepen the roar a bit.

I had the CSX AC6000 set of diesels back in 2008 or thereabouts and one was a SB dummy. That was significantly louder than the two powered units.

But I've heard a recent SD40 or something at someone's layout ... and it wasn't much louder, if at all. I'd buy an additional  powered unit instead.

Good luck

It's unfortunate they stopped making powered b units with sound.

It seems this is one area the much finer scales have us beat, and though current technology could solve the issue, it won't anytime soon.  N and smaller-scale sound systems sometimes use small speakers place around the layout to simulate a moving train, coupled with a single subwoofer to give those deep sounds, the sub being less directional than higher pitched speakers.  In theory, if the sound files for our O-scale models were contained in the controller (soon to all be generic phones/tablets), it would probably be nothing to offload the bass sounds to a subwoofer under the layout instead of on-board speakers.  But since even the new generation of 3-rail control systems will have the sound files onboard the engines, this won't be possible.  The one loophole I see that might be possible is having the sub added to the consist, but that also would require a lot of programming work to just catch everything else's deep sounds.  Until then we're stuck with bass from however big a speaker can fit into an O-Scale body shell.

The Super Bass B units offer, IMO, a really better diesel sound system when used by the Legacy Cab 2, Cab 1L remotes. I have the Sante Fe War bonnet ABBA, and the later yellow bonnet ABBA and when you rev them up, they are rolling thunder. Now, back in either 2008/2009 Lionel offered for the first time the CSX AC6000 Super Bass, now that one Roars… Although I’m not a player for the new blue bonnet series, Im sold on the super bass units. That’s a great question, there’s gonna be a lot of opinions. Good luck and happy railroading.

@Cheap&NothingWasted posted:

It seems this is one area the much finer scales have us beat ...

I hear ya, but ...

Baloney.  The sound belongs in the rolling equipment, not in the environment around it.  Ears are quite marvelous things and can easily tell the difference, even with the low-frequency bass components of the sound.   They sound fake.  On the other hand, when generated inside 'O' scale stuff it's better but not drastically better.

Just because tiny locomotives can't generate effective sound from inside the equipment, and modelers in these scales have to apply a band aid by implementing sound in the layout, doesn't make them superior.

Could a system be developed to 'follow' a moving consist around the layout, using string of speakers along its path, and project sound alongside the train as it travels?  Probably.  But unless it uses an infinite number of speakers in that string it's still a compromise and our amazing ears will detect this.

It's all about tricking them to hear what isn't really there.  It's not simple, and most importantly it's not here presently with either approach.

Mike

@PRRMiddleDivision posted:

Does anyone know if the sound from a Superbass engine is significantly better than that from a regular powered unit? My son tells me he thinks the  only difference is that the Superbass engines have a bigger speaker.

They don't even have a bigger speaker.

Santa Fe LEGACY SuperBass PB #54A - 1933163

Same 40mm FatBoy that's in most of the diesels.

The other SuperBass units I've taken apart have had the same speaker.

@Norton posted:

The biggest plus for sound in the B unit is having another engine with sound. Best is when all units have sound. I have never been impressed with volume from Railsounds lite boards. Railsounds 4 or 5 driving a 50m Fatboy will blow Railsounds light away. Put that system in an ABA and the neighbors will start yelling to turn the noise down.

Pete

Agreed. Imo the newer lionel diesels leave more to be desired.

Their TMCC versions are much louder and in many instances have a better sound file. The Alco FA2s come to mind.

Lionel has been using the same TI LM4861 audio amp since the RS4 modular days (and maybe earlier?). I’m not sure how they have them set up as I’ve never traced them out and I don’t know if they are set up differently on all the boards they appear on. RS4/5 and early Legacy used that monster overkill power supply so that could account for overall loudness of the older sounds. I found that I don’t mind the powered motherboard they used for a bit with the modular stuff. I’ve never really looked at the power supply section on the modern RS Lite/ERR RS boards but I would think they are not as stout as the older power supplies. I have to wonder about the EQ of the newer sound files too. I find the modern Legacy sounds to be a little flat compared to the RS4/5 sounds. My ears tell me the older sounds were way more dynamic in the sense that the EQ was tweaked and tuned for more liveliness.

@RickO posted:

Agreed. Imo the newer lionel diesels leave more to be desired.

Their TMCC versions are much louder and in many instances have a better sound file. The Alco FA2s come to mind.

Just to make the point, the early Legacy AC6000s mentioned above have two 40mm speakers are are driven with a RS5.5 board and Audio Power board. Basically just a superset of RS4 and RS5. Same boards with improved sound files.

The technology is there. My new Soundtrax Blunami card is only slightly larger than a RS Lite card even with motor driver on board and is significantly louder, maybe twice as loud. I run it at half volume. I will have to do some Decibel comparisons when I get a chance.

Pete

Thanks for all of the input. This is one part of the hobby I don't really know much about. While I am very artistic, when it comes to this sort of thing, I am completely tone deaf!