How Good/Bad is the base sound system?
 

I think I have been foolish. I am awaiting delivery of my car, ordered May due end of Sept, and went with Premium as opposed to Premium Plus so will have the basic sound system.
My reasoning was the basic sound system in my Jaguar XF is pretty reasonable and given the Mercedes brand, it's basic system should be reasonable as well but I have been put off by some of the comments within this forum.
I do like my music and have loaded my iPhone 5 with my favourite Northern Soul and Ska tracks, which sound good to my ears in my XF. Will I be disappointed come Sept?

Sound is very subjective and personal. I recently had a base system loaner and its Audio was ok but lacking in weight/bass. Burmester is good but I find you need it loud to get the best from it.

I have the base sound system and it's ok for me. I am not an audiophile. Most of the time I'm on bluetooth anyways.

I have the base sound system and really liked it ... FM radio / some blue tooth (classic rock). Then, I had a loaner for a week with the Burmeister. With it turned up all the way ...

- I could feel the base reverberated
- Sound was clearer at a higher volume (less distortion)

Back to the base system
- at normal listening levels - the base package was more than sufficient. Better than my other cars
- for phone calls, everything is clear;
- I do value my hearing and I don't drive with the music so loud as not to be able to hear other traffic.

Why don't you go to your local dealer and try both?

Thanks for the responses guys, It was through reading about the Burmeister comments that made me think if some are unhappy with that then what is the base system like?

I will visit the dealer and test myself, only thing is if it too bad what do I do? Ordered 7 th May, delivery 28 th Sept, best part of 5 months. I do like the C Class, may just have to compromise on the sound. If only I tested all aspects of the car, I actually turned the radio off so I could assess the engine, road and wind noise in the test drive.

My glk base sound system was excellent and by nature, although we have a first class purist sound system in the home (quad) , i am reluctant to order an optional car system but in the c class it was necessary for me. The base system was lacking in both depth and tonal range with no range in the adjustments. But as said by maniac sound is very subjective i would strongly recommend you visit the dealership and audition both systems to decide yourself. The burmester is not overwhelmingly wonderful but it is well balanced and has good adjustment. I do not regret spending the additional 1000 euro on the one hand but feel aggrieved mb have sufficiently reduced the base system forcing me to upgrade....

Just posting this as it improved my base sound audio via bluetooth.
The CD and radio are ok for my taste, not mind blowing but for a car system really ok.

For bluetooth which I found initially flat and lacking chcek the following:

- bluetooth sound options in the car, enable boost
- check your streaming settings, mine on spotify were set to low, after changing to the best quality sound became richer. I jumped from 96bps to 320 bps. Depending on your streaming app you might want to check if you have streaming on high quality enabled.

Just my 2 cents

Base system isfairly good but the Burmeister system is very good

I am honestly not impressed by the burmester. I guess Ive been spoiled by aftermarket systems on my previous cars.

But if you are not planning to do an aftermarket upgrade, go with the burmester. I can only imagine how bad the standard is.