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Hornby TTS Valenta HST

vanbasher

By vanbasher,
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vanbasher

vanbasher

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Afternoon, I see the latest offering in the Hornby TTS sound range has now hit the shelves in the form of R3602 pair of Intercity Swallow powercars 43078 & 079. I was just curious if anyone on here had purchased these & can tell me if they sound good? I have been waiting for Hornby to release a preview but no luck as yet. I will purchase as long as the sounds are reasonable. Thank you all.

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pheaton

pheaton

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Words cannot describe the disappointment you will feel if you purchase one and think you will be transported to a railway platform in the 1990s.....

 

Despite is good value for what my good freind mr pember (D1051) terms...coming towards and going away thrash (both power cars are sound fitted).....its sound is not the best i'm afraid...... in fact at the top end i would say the neighbourhood dogs and possibly dolphins in the atlantic ocean, will hear it better than you will!

 

However....i would tip it to be the new weapon of choice over the ever reliable factory sound bachman class 20 for upsetting the anti sound brigade at exhibitions :)

 

horns...great....engine start up and idle....mmmmm yeah ok not bad....but a little on the quiet side.... that burst of sound on move off....non exisitant....and top end engine sound.....im reminded of a thistle whistle from the cartoon family ness.....(youngsters will have to you tube that one)

 

personally i really would like to know if the person in Hornby that said "that sounds awesome lets sell it :)" has actually ever heard a valenta fitted hst...

Edited by pheaton
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37081LochLong

37081LochLong

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I picked up a pair from Rails yesterday and tested the sound this morning...

 

They look great and it's nice having sound come from both power cars but as Pheaton says... Prepare to be disappointed! It has a distant feel of a valenta but it's missing so much! If you put it on "thrash" you start to get there but it just doesn't sound like the Valentas I heard powering out of platform 5 at Sheffield, not enough low end grunt and when running and I can imagine the high end driving people mad after a while, no real "zing" just high pitched whistle. I don't even like the horns.

 

I know not to expect perfect sound from the TTS system but the other locos I've heard weren't bad so I was expecting a little more from this.

 

Luckily I bought them for the locos and livery to renumber, and not for the sound. If I'd bought especially for the sound I'd be very disappointed

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pheaton

pheaton

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This 

 

I picked up a pair from Rails yesterday and tested the sound this morning...

They look great and it's nice having sound come from both power cars but as Pheaton says... Prepare to be disappointed! It has a distant feel of a valenta but it's missing so much! If you put it on "thrash" you start to get there but it just doesn't sound like the Valentas I heard powering out of platform 5 at Sheffield, not enough low end grunt and when running and I can imagine the high end driving people mad after a while, no real "zing" just high pitched whistle. I don't even like the horns.

I know not to expect perfect sound from the TTS system but the other locos I've heard weren't bad so I was expecting a little more from this.

Luckily I bought them for the locos and livery to renumber, and not for the sound. If I'd bought especially for the sound I'd be very disappointed

This is what i dont understand.....the Hornby class 31 TTS chips are very good...in terms of sound quality.........this however.....sound like the conversation went...

 

So did you get some HST recordings.......oh yeah start up horns idle.....

 

what about thrash....

 

thrash?

 

yeah thrash you know like when your moving off...

 

oh....i knew there was something....

 

its ok go to gents and record the dyson air blade....that will do!

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Pete the Elaner

Pete the Elaner

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I wasn't meaning to make this wander to other TTS decoders. It is frustrating that Hornby only produce this pair in TTS & it is not like you can have them re-blown for something else, which only leaves 3 less appealing options:

 

Put up with them.

Throw them away.

Remove the speaker & use them for something you are less bothered about sound for. As non-sound speakers, these do not represent very good value for money.

 

Someone posted a review of this on Youtube yesterday & having herd it, I have to agree with your comment earlier about recording it sounding more like a hand drier than a diesel with a whistling turbo.

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pheaton

pheaton

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But they (Hornby) will argue that its reflected in the price, and given that these are both sound fitted for not a lot more than a standard set (indicative to some of the markup available).

 

to be fair to Hornby they have been upfront with what you are getting, whereas competitors have introduced decoders with similar capabilities without being so upfront about it, or reflected it in the price (but thats already been done to death elsewhere)

But in answer to your question yes you are stuck with the decoder you cannot do anything about it's sounds....if they went down the loksound select route, and made the projects available for use in another locomotive that you could load on to the decoder that would be better.

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Phil Mc

Phil Mc

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Can I just check is 43078 meant to have a nameplate on either side as my currently has one, seeing the above photo I’m assuming mine has also slipped past quality control.

Mine's got plates on both sides !!

 

 

Cheers,

Phil.

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Boco_D1

Boco_D1

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Thanks I suspected as much. Well unless someone does etched plates back to the shop it goes.

 

Edit: Fox do an etched plate, placed the order so hopefully that will solve that issue.

Edited by Boco_D1
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Rich Papper

Rich Papper

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I picked up a set, not for the sound, just been looking for this livery having missed out last time. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks it's a bit tinny. Would love to replace speakers if this would help. Will be keeping an ear out if anyone comes up with a good fix. Can't afford the full chip replacement.

 

Rich

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RAF96

RAF96

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The problem you have is adding a pair of decent speakers to the Valenta set is more than the cost of a single TTS decoder.

 

The group speaker test in another thread shows that a noticeable improvement can be gained by a speaker replacement.

 

Rob

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G-BOAF

G-BOAF

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These Intercity Power Cars are adorned with the latest OHL flashes. I see for both '78 and '79 this is technically correct, albeit not ex-works and with somewhat worn front paintwork, BUT it does narrow the dates of these models to a very short period between the new flashes being introduced and repainting into Virgin Trains livery.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/theoriginalzippy/24023248218/sizes/h/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/37190-dalzell/16111906518/sizes/h/

Edited by G-BOAF
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