Agree about the sound making it pricey. For my first foray it's under $40 for an Atlas loco and $25 more for an Aztec frame for the speaker and about $60 for the decoder, so the decoder and milled frame are more than 2/3 the cost. Hopefully this weekend I'll get a chance to solder the speaker lead back to the board and actually be able to run it on the test track.
As a one train one operator on a shelf layout i;ll stick with the DC for now but having a DCC equipped loco i found the sounds became a bit noisy and monotonous after the novelty wore off,If i ever do get into DCC it sure wont be for the sound effects..