First a slight correction Gene. It is Precision Craft Models you are talking about. They like BLI are producing locos with sound in both HO and N scale and both have a new line of "Stealth Series" for those of you who want the loco but without sound.
I know what you mean about the sound getting to you after a while, and it is quite a cacaphony in the train room with my four engines going at the same time. (Can you imagine what it will be like with my four new stationary sounds?) I however, like the sounds, but I have turned down the volume. You might try that yourself, rather than turning it totally off. Your decoder manual should tell you which CV controls what sounds.
Now as for the MRC "Synchro Sound" boxes; unless your layout is rather small, you probably will not like the sound effects. Why do I say this? If you have a central location for the speaker, like the middle of your layout table, it will not matter so much where the train is when you create the sounds. It should be close enough to the loco to give the effect that the sound is coming from the loco within reason. If you have a large walk-around layout with the speaker located in one place, when the loco is on the other side of the layout the sounds will be separated too much to be realistic. This is also the problem with the earlier sound boxes that MRC produces and are not synchronized.
The hook-up seems to be simple, two wires to the power pack, which although not clear in the ads, most likely places the sound control between the power pack and the track supply so that the power pack controls the sound sync through the sound box.
My personal opinion is that stationary speakers leave much to be desired when it comes to a moving train.
B-)
