Mike5215

Your current car has a Harman/Kardon system too. It just happens to be a poorly designed one with a different name on it. Here's a write up on upgrading the factory Burmester:

www.w205audio.wordpress.com

Short version, start by adding a DSP amp and that will vastly improve the performance of the stock speakers. The primary deficiency in the Burmester (and most MB HK systems) is in the factory EQ. Properly tuned the stock speakers are fine. You may want a sub at some point but even the "Frontbass" speakers wake up and start hitting with the right power and EQ applied.

shaunds

I have a 2016 C250 with the 'burmester' system and I have taken it back to MB. They just lubed (yes, lubed!) the speaker clips in the hope it stops the buzzing. It didn't. I'm taking matters into my own hands.

I've started by taking some some foam tape and stuffing it between the door panel and the panel that has the door speaker grill and seat controls. The buzzing mainly comes from that panel (aluminium or ****ty wood look) or the center speaker. I've cured the center speaker buzz by taking the grill off and taking single side adhesive foam tape and sticking it along the edges on the inside of the speaker grill. Basically, padding the grill,making it more stiff when you clip it back in. Seems to work well. MB lubed the sh*t out of the clips on that speaker.. Grease from hell. Geniuses over there.

Anyway, doing the above has made the buzz or loose panels much better. But, the door panels are the most stubborn. Still get the buzz at some levels. But, 80% better than before. I will take the panel off and stick more foam tap inside between the panels and get some dynamat and stick it near the actual speaker to lesson vibration.

It sucks that you need to do this to a £50k car but it seems MB are incapable or just don't want to fix it.

Mike's suggestion of adding a DSP to the setup to get the frequencies right will fix most the buzz issues. But, it does not remove the fact that the door panels and center speaker grill are poorly designed for speakers or anyone listening to half decent music. So, even with a DSP added and the setup done, the buzzing might still occur due to loose parts. So, adding the DSP and doing something similar to what I did (felt or foam tape) will sort it out.

Mike5215

The DSP would allow you to suppress the frequencies that cause the buzzing but at the expense of getting the sound you actually want. When we did my 205 the shop also Hushmatted the crap out of the interior door panels. So much in fact that they had to use slightly longer panel clips to put the door panel itself back on. In addition to killing rattles, it also makes the doors sound much more solid when you close them.

Honestly the whole audio system, from the way it's designed to how it's installed, is a huge disappointment. If music in the car is a priority for you this is the wrong car. The amount of time and money it takes to make it reasonably acceptable is proportionally very high relative to other cars in the segment.

For example, I rented a 2018 BMW 430i 'vert for two weeks over the summer. It had the "base" unbranded audio system, which is largely the same stuff as in the optional upgraded Harman/Kardon, with a few less speakers and less amplification.

It gets two 8" shallow mount dual voice coil subs under the front seats, 2-way 4" fronts in the doors, 4" mids in the rear panels and a center dash speaker. It's very easy to tune, and simply playing my Iphone music through a $3 DSP app was more than enough. The Prima DSP would be next level stuff in that car, where in the C it just manages to make the system listenable.

In fact, I liked the car and the audio system so much I just locked a build on 430i Coupe with the upgraded HK hardware.

shaunds

does adding/changing the MB audio system void the entire car's warranty? or does it just void the audio system aspect of the car warranty?

Mike5215

I'd think it would be limited to damage to the factory amp or the factory speakers specifically. For example if the DSP caused a low impedance condition that cooked the amp, or if the DSP had a power surge that blew some speakers. I wouldn't sweat it with the Match/Helix or Prima.

markjax

Hey guys! So i reached out to Burmester regarding the "buzzing" and 'crackling" sound coming from my speakers. They have responded and with a solution! I have showed this to my dealer and hopefully this is the final time I have to hear this annoying noise. Hope this helps everyone out!!

Naif205

Cosworth2000

No issues in my car and I have aluminium trim. The only thing I hate is that the bass turns off when you increase speed. I wish the system did not do that as it's annoying.

Naif205

Terminator1

hpilot

Never heard of that. The bass on mine does not do that. I'm very happy with my sound system.

MBSebas87

Just got my speakers fixed. The buzz was so annoying when i was listening to talk radio i had to take it to the dealer asap. no hassle from them.

a_ronaghi

Ahh, I think I have this same problem on my 2018 w/ Burmester. I listen to NPR 80% of the time in the car, and the random buzzing sound is driving me insane. It's almost always John Sepuvado's voice from the California Report :P

wmelton1

MBSebas87 can you please advise how the speakers were repaired. I'm having the same issue with 2015 S63 AMG. Music pops and when your on the phone the phone calls are horrible with this popping noise coming from the speakers. Its so irritating.

Butterback

I also have an issue with the sound. It's coming from the center speaker mostly... This is highly disappointing. It's not so much a buzz as a distortion.

MBSebas87

I went in twice. The first time they replaced the front speaker on the dash and adjusted some thing on the speakers of the drivers door. Buzz still coming from other speakers, I took it in again. They adjusted something on speakers from all doors. I can’t find the paperwork otherwise I would post it. Also, I noticed that when there’s no sound and driving over bumpy roads or uneven, the buzz, rarely, comes out with no sound being played. I think the housing of speakers is the problem. Since it rarely happens now, haven’t bothered to take it in.

BenzIsTop

*** Didn't work out after all *** Read my message further down from 03-21-2019 *** It's the LED strip that rattles in its frame !!! ***

Hi all,

I love my E-class Merc (a W213), and I absolutely love the (little) Burmester... but not always...
I've had a rattling/buzzing front left door speaker for almost 2 years now. It's nerving during phone conversations, and sometimes audible whilst playing music (depends on the song). With an oscillator I could provoke the buzz somewhere between 250Hz and 300Hz.
I took it to the dealer when the car was about 3 months old (early 2017), only to hear that they had one other car with the same problem (a W205), couldn't do anything about it, and would get back in touch when they had a solution. Which they still didn't...

All "sounds" familiar ?

After reading and re-reading this whole thread a couple of times, it inspired me to the following successful approach (=> THANKS TO ALL OF YOU).

I didn't want to take off the whole door panel (car still under warranty, and it's a company lease car so not really mine). But I dared to try to remove just the part in which the speaker is placed. I fiddled around, didn't succeed to remove it, BUT whilst lifting up the TIP of the panel (= under the door locking pin at the far end of the speaker) about 1/10", all of a sudden the buzz stopped ! So I definitely found the root cause.
It's NOT a speaker problem, it's the speaker panel rattling against the rest of the door panel !!! (at least in my case)

So I only needed to find a way to keep the tip of the speaker panel slightly away from the rest of the door panel.
I lifted up the tip, and slipped in 2 small pieces of soft isolation (about 1/4" thick). After releasing the tip it gets compressed to about 1/25" - totally invisible but just enough to keep the parts slightly away from each other.
Other material like some thick felt or so will probably also do the trick - just give it a try.

I'll drive it for some time and see if it comes back. If it does then I just need to redo the job but a little less "quick and dirty".

Hope this helps at least some of you !!


The 2 RED LINES ON THE PICTURE indicate where I pressed small soft pieces of isolation tubes (about 1/6" wide - reduced to about 1/25" once compressed) between the edge of the speaker panel and the door panel. Just enough to have the tip of the speaker panel not touch the rest of the door panel.

david2u

I have the same issue with my 2018 C300, here in NY.
When I listen to certain AM stations (710 & 770), sounds like the speaker cones are ripped.
For the most part, when listening to FM, Sirius, Bluetooth, my iPod, sounds normal.
Definitely has to do with certain frequencies.
Dealer has replaced the antenna booster, and the radio, it’s the same thing.
I wouldn’t have expected this on a 50K car.
Not sure what else to do at this point.

Butterback

It's crazy. It just got worse with the cold... When I turned OFF the "SURROUND" mode. It made it less noticeable. But with it on, for some reason it sounds like crap like a busted speaker with sound frequencies or sound combinations. As for why it got worse with the cold, I'm not sure.

david2u

I turned the surround off but, I think it got worse.
The cold doesn’t seem to make any difference.... still sucks.
I’m going to call Mercedes corporate tomorrow, and see if they have any info on it.

P111NOJ

P111NOJ

david2u

Did he replace all of the speaker holders? When mine starts to make that noise, it comes from all the speakers in the car.

P111NOJ

rustybear3

You do realize that this Burmeister sound system doesn't really have Burmeister speakers. It's just that the system is balanced and processed by Burmeister. The speakers themselves are pretty stock.

Here's a member who replaced them with higher quality speakers a few years ago...shows what speakers we really have: https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...ster-myth.html