TTS round speaker size.

[TENRAGS]

I am a huge fan of Hornby's TTS stand-alone decoders, a very welcome and reasonably-priced alternative to the established (but hugely expensive) ones, and a release which has transformed my personal enjoyment of my model railway.

However, finding a space in some older locos, by any manufacturer, to fit the large round TTS speaker is most frustrating. Although I am aware that some more recent Hornby locos have dedicated round speaker placements, thus far the additional purchase and fitting of  "sugarcube" speakers was necessary in three out of the first four of my conversions, resulting in the TTS speakers being shelved, and given my roster of 22 locos, the prospect of lots more rejects to come. A more thoughtful choice of speaker for differing models would have been appreciated.

[96RAF]

Some of them are provided with oblong speakers.

 

The logistics of providing a suitable speaker for each and every model variant in the range is uneconomic and barely even feasible.

 

Added to that any model without a bespoke speaker mount was obviously designed before TTS was invented so unless you can invent pre-production hindsight then sorting it out yourself is the only possible solution.

[TrainDriverJ]

Could they not all have been fitted with the smaller “sugar cube” speakers? Presumably people with older models would be happy and the newer models designed to fit these. Would this have taken the cost past their sale expectations or some other technical reason?

[96RAF]

Who is to know what Hornby's buying logistics philosphy is.

 

I just Googled for images of 8 ohm 1 Watt micro speakers and got everything from a few pence per item to several dollars.

 

I know you can get iPhone speakers within spec for less than 99P each in bulk but factor in re-engineering these into a model and the cost must rise.

 

Rob

 

[TrainDriverJ]

Thanks Rob for your thoughts. The more I read on the forum about TTS decoders, how it’s been incorporated, speaker design and issues some people seem to be facing I can‘t help feeling that Hornby was on a winnner and yet somehow it’s turned out just not quite right. It’s certainly got people talking. I would probably tackle a bit of soldering following instructions but can understand why people want something easier. I suppose it just wasn’t possible as things evolved. I do hope people appreciate what Hornby have done though overall. I also think it probably shows that quite a few people do want sound in their locos.

[96RAF]

John 

 

People have come up with all sorts of ideas for the speaker, a favourite being to have it plug into the decoder, but that in itself brings problems, you need extra space for the plug and any replacement speaker would need to have a plug fitted, so back to square one.

 

Another idea is just to have two long leads attached to the decoder so people can attach their own or the supplied speaker, but you would get complaints the kit wasnt plug and play, again a no win situation.

 

I have no idea what the best compromise is apart from the American route of replacing the complete circuit board for a sound equipped one, but that is an expensive option.

 

Rob