Mike5215

It compresses when it rips from CD, to 256kbs I believe. MP3 files are transferred right over bit for bit. The Tidal subscription service streams in lossless CD quality. That sounds great on the Burmester. Or just CDs themselves.

If you really want to light the Burmester up, pick up Donald Fagen's Nightfly Trilogy MVI set. MVI discs are albums that have been remastered from 2 channel stereo into 5.1 Dolby Digital DVD format, by the original recording artist in this case. "Kamakirid" and "Morph The Cat" sound amazing. "Nightfly" has an EQ problem in the way it was originally mastered and isn't as good.

aambulo

True. But for what it's worth, I don't think the difference is really noticeable. i mean tbh, I don't think I would notice the difference in the quality in sound in a CD versus a true high-fidelity file. (which I don't think the Burmester system can decode? I don't know for sure, just speculating) if you also consider that the passive sound isolation built into the car can also block out so much NVH, the quality of the sound system I think would take precedence, and not the quality of the source media---that's why P2 would definitely be a must-have for me because audio 20 will always pale in comparison versus the Burmester

aambulo

Yeah, I can see that, I'm asking my dealer to price a C with P2, MM, and DA to get a better estimate---hopefully it's close to my calculations lol

+1 on the Park Assist, that option to me sounded very useful---or maybe I'm just getting increasingly lazy as I get older

Mike5215

Audio20 is a non starter for music. As far as quality, I have a high res system at the house, and with a good DAC capable of handling master quality stuff encoded sampled at a high 256khtz or 96khtz rate and a 24 bit depth really does sound better than the CD version of the same track. But neither your phone or the Burmester can handle anything over a 44,100 htz sampling rate and a bit depth of 16. (CD quality) Hi Res files are so huge (a 3 minute track can run 300mb where the equivalent MP3 is 3mb. For a sense of scale a CD holds 780mb) that it's not practical for the car if you have a large library.

In the car, I calibrate everything for 256kb AAC since that's what I listen to the most. It strikes a good balance between quality and portability.

Mike5215

Hmmm. Maybe price the car out yourself on the MB website and then ask the dealer for a flat discount off MSRP. 10% isn't unheard of, and I've seen as high as 15%.

huyuci

If I have to choose between one or the other, I'll take the driver assist any time. Bigger screen is nice, but driver assist will be used more often. Just my personal preference.

aambulo

Definitely. My dealer is a high-volume dealer in the area anyway, I don't think they'll mind parting with a few more $ on my lease considering there's so many more people who just take the first deal given. I'm adding maintenance to the lease too, it's residualized so even better for me!

Mike5215

Well, it's capitalized but the residual always stays flat, set by the manufacturer. But I get the idea. You can capitalize a bunch of stuff...dealer fee, acquisition fee, even negative equity on a trade.

inhartwetrust

Very good info, thanks guys. I'm a bit of an audiophile, although my technical understanding of everything is lacking. I've got a super computer that I built, equipped with an aftermarket sound card/DAC, and Philips Fidelio X1 cans. I use Bose QuietComfort25s at the gym, when golfing/at the driving range, at my desk at work, etc. I don't have a single audio file downloaded anywhere, although my PC has plenty of space for it....I just stream through TIDAL.

Now, relating this to my soon to be C450, is the following accurate? Seeing that I only stream my music, my best bet for the highest quality audio on the Burmester is to stream through TIDAL on my iPhone 6s Plus, via USB connection? Does the car come with a USB to iPhone cable (lightening cable?), or will I need to pick an aftermarket cable up?

I didn't even pay attention to the Burmester on my test drive. The dealer said the USB or stored files sound best, but I told him to turn the sound all the way down bc I wanted to hear the exhaust, haha. I told him I'd heard the system was a good one, so didn't really see a point in "testing it out" given the fact it's not really a decision.

Mike5215

I think any standard Lightning charging cable would work in either of the two USB ports in the console. I haven't played with it yet. I just noticed that Tidal, whose entire pitch was lossless CD quality streaming, now has two levels of service and you need the premium for the Hi Fi stream. Had to go into Settings and upgrade. But yeah, TIDAL hard docked to the car would be your best bet. Although for most stuff I haven't seen enough of a downgrade vs BT Audio to warrant the inconvenience of the hard dock. I have the Bose QC 15 phones. Great sounding units.

I've got a bunch of nice Focal and Audison gear from my S going into the C next week. The Burmester is such a nice system to start with I'm pretty psyched about it, especially the Audison DSP.

Edit. Okay, Iphone6 into the left USB with a regular charging cable gives you full IPod like control via COMAND and cover art display, as well as playlist control. It also sounds tighter with better dynamic range than the BT audio connection. So that's that.

dieseldoc

Have Garmin in my c class and MM in my GLC. Get the MM. Much nicer. You will be happier.

inhartwetrust

Perfect, thanks Mike!

Mike5215

Sometimes with MB if you play a source other than the Apple internal player and use COMAND search to switch tracks or playlists etc it will switch you back to the internal player. So TIDAL, Spotify etc had to be controlled on the device itself. In the 205 it's smart enough to know which app is playing and control that app. Plus you get cover art on COMAND.

Here's TIDAL on the IPhone and COMAND:





What's cool is that it's bringing cover art over from a streaming source.

inhartwetrust

Damn that is awesome, I'm glad it's so well integrated now...really looking forward to using TIDAL/COMAND together here in a couple of months.

kram1

+ 1. I have the smaller screen and just use my phone for Navi (which is rare as I usually know where I'm going). I wish I would have got driver assist just for the blind spot alert alone - much more useful feature then Navi and a larger screen. I did order the backup camera as a stand alone option and am sure glad I did as that's a must have feature. Just make sure you get Premium 2 because not only do you get the Burmester (which is a must), but you also get Keyless Go.

aambulo

Thanks for the advice! I finally took delivery of my car today. P2, Multimedia, and Pano roof. I found a good deal and it all fell into place.