N scale sound - 2
exceptional performance for its size. Then, there was the ques-
tion of the decoder itself – again, I was limited to 10-11 mm
in width, and probably no more than 25 mm in length to fit a
decoder in a typical N scale diesel. Moreover, I am very picky
about motor control from my DCC decoders; whatever sound
decoder I would use needed to have motor control equal to
the best non-sound decoders. Finally, the sound itself needed
to be top quality, or the whole effort just wasn’t going to be
worth it.
In doing some research on the subject, I came across two
speakers intended as OEM equipment for the cell phone and
tablet markets that seemed to make a sound installation in an
N scale diesel possible. The first was from a company called
Knowles. Their “Fox”
speaker was 9 mm wide by
16 mm long – narrow and
short enough to fit inside
an N scale diesel shell.
The second was from Star
Micronics, which made an
8 mm x 12 mm speaker
that had similar perfor-
mance specifications to
the Fox. The Fox speaker
has since been discontin-
ued and replaced by the
“Wildcat”.
For the decoder, I hap-
pened upon ESU
LokSound’s website and
discovered their Select
Micro line of decoders.
2
2. The basic materials: the
speaker and two strips of
styrene cut from a sheet to
5.5 mm wide.
MRH-Dec 2014
