I spent a few hours with a collaborating dealer test driving the car (C43 Wagon) and listening to the sound system. The latter being a huge priority for my long trips I was quickly ticked off by the default settings and a sense of emptiness vs my latest Audi B&O premium. I played with the equalizer and the “usual” bell curve midrange lift that works well in many other cars was a fiasco. I since read many entries in this forum and others where it is established that the W205 Burmester system is in fact a rebadged entry level HK with some tweaks by the Burmester team to make it acceptable....shame on MB for this when the new E series gets real Burmester components. OK I am digressing....

Anyhow, after a few hours of trial and error equipped with a simple spectrometer and using Tidal master quality audio via Car Play, I managed to get a very decent yet unorthodox set up. Try it and tell me if it works for you or if I am totally deaf. I am known to be some sort of audiofool at home with pretty high end components but I am also getting old so....
Set up:
Surround: on
Sound focus: Rear seats (critical)
Equalizer: Bass:4-5 /Mids: 2/ Treble: -2 (yes minus 2)

The whole idea is to compensate for crappy midrange HK woofers, poor DSP, lack of lower mid bass and fatiguing upper mid by:
- reducing the mids as much as possible without sacrificing voice clarity and impact
- lift the bass to fake an extension over the lower mid...I don’t really like to do this as it makes the bass a tad wooly on some heavy recordings but it is an old trick to fake a frequency that is missing.
- cut off the treble to avoid sibilance in the upper mids (low range of the treble)

The best and easiest trick was to switch from the “intuitive” front focus to rear focus. High frequencies being quite directional, it takes it away from the drivers position. I sat behind driver seat as well and it is very acceptable as well. All tested at 70-75% volume.

Feedback welcome.

 

I think it sounds great. Highs not as good as my BO in my former S5. But bass and mids better. Both play really well at full volume depending on the input.

 

Agreed, and yes it needed some tweaking (about 5 mins) to my taste but overall I think it sounds great. My 14 yr old daughter loves it as well...one of her favorite features of the car lol.

 

Please let me know your setup, if you got good results in 5mn I want to try it!

 

I'm on 5-6-9 or something. Still not very good. They are just mediocre speakers...

 

Indeed, mediocre at best. But you are pushing bad mids and trebles way too much I think. Please try my recommendation and tell me what you think. I am just curious to see if anybody thinks it helps as it is truly not the conventional set up for an EQ.

 

Mare you in a facelift or a pre-facelift? I’ve had both and the two systems sound different at the same settings. Facelift has ridiculously boomy bass, to the extent that I think something is wrong with the system.

 

Facelift model I believe (the C43W with a 384hp engine). Yes bass is exaggerated and distorted like for most sub-satellite systems where the sub is asked to cover lower mids and compensate for deficiencies of the satellite speakers. The infamous Bose Accoustimass crap that many yuppies believe is high end audio, high end robbery instead.
The bass setting I suggest is for “normal” pop rock stuff. If you get into electro chances are 2-3 is enough.

 

haha, I would have to go back and check. I know I had the Surround Sound turned "on" and a rear bias/fade I think of -8.. I think I had the treble at around 5. You are right the bass is crazy, so I think it was only at 1.

BUT I don't believe this is meant to be a set it and it leave it type of situation. I think it really depends on what type of music or genres you are listening to AND from what source you are using. My daughter was listening to pop music on SAT radio. Sirius/XM sounds a lot tinnier IMO and will need a bit more bass then say something I have downloaded on my phone from Spotify or iTunes. So for me I will always be tweaking at least the bass, mids, treble etc as I'm switching from say Dream Theater to Chick Corea to Billie Eilish Lol.

My expectations also were not that high going into this car. I don't even think these are real Burmester's but rebadged HKs? That being said I have had many other car stereos over the years and these seem to be very nice for a mid-level system. But that's just my 2 cents

 

Thanks. You are unfortunately right that systems like this one need some adjustment depending on the type of music and that’s generally a sign of poor quality. Same for home systems requiring some form of EQ or DSP mode changes. My Audi RS BO premium audio got set up once and never touched it ever again and I listen to pretty ouch everything from classical to electro. So is my pricey home audio system, no EQ needed.
I played with different settings again today (went back to the dealership) and in fact the system sound pretty good (not great though!) as long as bass and treble are controlled and it is a rear seat focus. I still think that MB should put some true Burmester components in the C43 Premium package instead of playing the nauseating rebadging game.
My OCD is satisfied with the sound I managed to get so I can now focus on what matters: is this the car I want to own and drive!

 

I am in pre-facelift so it sounds like the tuning is different... I will try your settings anyway and report back if it made an improvement.

 

In any situation, the room is just as big of a component as anything else in the system. Each system has to be configured to the room/car it is in. I RTA every system I configure as each room/atmosphere is different. There is a difference between what a person likes and what the source is SUPPOSED to sound like. Many variables to consider when it comes to audio.

 

Thanks for the feedback and tips. A BO system is one I never did have or try out (but I have heard awesome thing about them). I agree with you once set up you really shouldn't have to change too much. But I would still think though with the dif types of media used today to produce the music, you may still want to change the EQ (vs years ago when all we used was CDs or the radio in the car). Even then I would change the eq sometimes going to the CDs from radio as an example.

I do agree with the whole marketing/branding thing is annoying (misleading to many). My understanding on the S class and other more expensive Benz's they have REAL Burmester's and sound incredible.

Anyway, glad you found a happy medium and can move on...that is pretty much what I did lol. Enjoy your C43!

 

Tried the OP's settings and found them to be WAY too bassy, with much of the mids and most of the highs blown out. I'm OK with the C43 Burmester being a middle-of-the-road system, actually only marginally better than the Bose in my Porsche, because I didn't get into the car expecting much from the audio system.

 

Yeah I pretty much felt the same way. I went in with low expectations based on the feedback I've seen on this forum. But I was actually pleasantly surprised and it was better than I expected lol. I know there are much better out there, but it's as good, actually a bit better than some of the other systems that were in my Infiniti and Lexus.

 

I used these settings except 'focus' and there was definitely improvement. I think previous settings were factory default.

 

Thanks...... I'll give those settings a go.