This was posted today on Tony's Trains:
"A friend of mine recently bought a Bachmann Consolidation with sound. He was expecting the sound to be a QSI decoder and was surprised when he found out it was a Soundtraxx Tsunami.
Tsunamis will run on DC with preset automated sound functions. These sounds cannnot be controlled from a DC throttle. The sounds are automated preset sound functions and need to be tweaked (CVs) with a DCC system, to match the specific DC power pack in use. Sometimes the results are good, and with other power packs the performance, including start speed, is marginal at best.
The Tsunami does not have an analog control device like QSI's "Quantum Engineer" that provides for analog control for all the popular sound functions.
Bachmann has indicated in their generic Sound on Board advertising that they have partnered with Soundtraxx and use Tsunami decoders. However in some of their recent locomotive specific advertising with Sound on Board, Bachmann does not specify which brand of sound decoder is installed in their products. Neither do retailers of their product."
I have bought several locos from Tony's and have never been confused as to what brand of sound decoder is installed in their locomotives. In fact, if you go to Tony's website and look at their listing for Bachmann's 2-8-0 and click on "configuration", you will see that it has, all along, always spelled out that it is equipped with Tsunami's. This reminds me of that old cartoon in Model Railroader with a guy returning his "Shake the box, easy to build" locomotive, complaining that he could not get the box open. Sheesh, guys. Get a life.
http://tonystrains.com/locomotive/bachmann.htm
Good point. Perhaps Mr. achmann can get a spec sheet on line for all offerings as they have for the new product annoncement.
The other problem is that many users do understand the differences between the diffferent sound/DCC board available. I use over-the-air radio control for my stuff. A little harder but no problems in operation.
I use DCC for a pair of modules I have. My advice is to use one type of sound/DCC board to keep things under control
Dear All,
The 2-8-0 with Tsunami sound is available from Soundtraxx, but not from us.
Have fun!
the Bach-man