For those that own this loco, would you be able to let me know if it's just me, or is it really supposed to be THIS quiet.

I've had the loco for about a year now and I've always been concerned about the volume. At max volume on my layout, the internal gearing is LOUDER than the speaker. BY A LOT! I can't even hear the loco working unless I'm right up next to it. Even my wife asks me if it's supposed to have sound.

Is everyone elses this quiet? Or can it be heard?

Are you running with DCC or DC? I have not heard one that was running with the DC mode only so I can't say how loud the sound was. I have heard several Challengers running on DCC and thought the sound was quite loud. As a mater of fact once I had heard the sounds of one of these Challengers I got into DCC, so I could get sound into my locomtives. The sound bug got me into DCC. I have been real happy that I made the jump.
As for your locomotive, do you have a friend ( or a club) that has a sound equiped locomotive? You could then have a yard stick to measure the sound of your loco to one of the others.

I have a pair of the Clinchfield Challengers from Athearn, in HO scale. On the modular layout, at train shows, I can hear the sounds.
In N scale, I would expect the sound to be not as strong as HO due to speaker size.

Athearn is offering me to send it to them for review/repair. I'll be shipping it away next week... Along with my Concor 2-10-2...grrr why does n scale steam have to be so finiky?

Quote:grrr why does n scale steam have to be so finiky?

'cause they're small, like kids.......or old, like me.