Cabin doesn't fill with sound, MB's take.
 

While I had the new coupe in because of chattering wiper blades (wound up replacing the windshield,) I had them check out the Burmester system. In my opinion, no matter how much I fiddled with the controls, I never could get the sound to fill the cabin.

The dealership's concierge came out to check the system...and he claimed to be somewhat of an audiophile. Although problems like this can be rather subjective, the concierge did agree with me that the cabin was not filled with sound. Most of the sound was heard coming from the center of the dash, although the other speakers were working (well, at least vibrating.) he made some changes in the equalizer...like putting the settings into the 6-7 range, and checked the fade controls. This seemed to enrich the sound somewhat, but he could never come close to filling the cabin with sound.

So, after agreeing with my impressions of poor sound direction (more like unidirectional than multidirectional,) we left off with his going to a special net concierge site to see if he could get some answers. I'm to call him at the end of the week to see if he found some kind of fix...Stay tuned, and in the meanwhile, any suggestions?

Only thing I did to make things a little better was turn on the "Surround sound" for all seats, that seemed to help fill it out a little more then being very front directional.

Have you tried playing a DVD movie? I am interested to know if the source system is misreading the type of material coming from what you are playing and there's either a bug in the system, or there's a defect in YOUR unit in particular. I don't have my car yet to test, but it would be interesting to know if a DVD sounded just as bad.

I understand your suggestion and will try it. But my feeling is that it is the Burmester system in that the lesser audio system in the vase C300 did the job of filling the cabin with sound with both HD radio and satellite radio, whereas Burmester sucked in comparison.

Did you hear anything back from MB re quality of premium sound system ? Just taken delivery of c250d coupe and it is the one thing that stands out as a disappointment

No.

Did they fix the wiper issue? Mine is skipping like crazy. They said it's the coating on the windshield that will be wear off but I has been 2 months.

There's another thread about this, but that's a Crap answer from the dealer...

Well, sort of. They wound up replacing the windshield. Wipers worked on the first rain; however, they are now starting to slightly chatter on light rain. Maybe wipers have to "break-in?" I'll have a better handle on it when I go through a heavy rain...

I've been into Audio for 40 years. Have a nice home system too. Burmester home components are very good. The Burmester system in the C is merely fair. Don't expect too much of it.

Quite correct. And the reason that the Burmester system in the C300 is really only fair to worse is that according to an audio enthusiast's blog, the only thing that is Burmester is the logo on the speaker covers. The blog states that the speaker components are not Burmester and that Burmester did the tuning and licensed its name to be used. How about them apples, if true?

Considering that a true Burmester home system can cost more than an entire C class car, it's pretty clear that Burnester has licensed its name for the C class.

What a shame then, it seems to be dragging their name down the pan.

We'll, perhaps it has something to do with the fact the Dieter Burmester died in 2015. A car audio system with a Burmester name is a smart marketing idea in Germany because Burmester is one of the best known luxury brands in Germany

I did some more fiddling around with the settings for the C300 Coupe and found better settings by switching the Surround setting to ON and to FRONT seats. Then adjust the Fader to -3 or -4 (more to the rear).

With the Surround setting to FRONT the rear speakers end up working similarly to rear speakers in a home theater system where only the "Inverted" audio (the ambience, instruments, and no vocals) is sent to the rear speakers, while the front takes the typical stereo information. (Turn to the fader all the way to the rear and you'll hear what I'm talking about.) It's the same effect you hear when you pull your headphone cord halfway out of the jack on your iPod and don't really hear the vocals anymore.

Anyway, I find that even though the front soundstage is still very much forward (gets even worse with the Surround ON & Front), you can even it out a bit by moving the fader bias to the rear and with the added ambience it gives the overall impression that the sound fuller.

Lastly, remember that each source needs to be changed individually, so you basically need to make the changes in all sources, one by one.