My wife is out of town so I've had a chance to spend some quality time with her GLC 43 the last couple days. I'm finding myself not very impressed with the Burmester sound system. I have the upgraded HK in my M4 and it blows the Burmester away in my opinion.

I feel like I have to crank up the base and turn down the treble and midrange to get anything that resembles a full sound. Is this the general consensus?

Thanks...

 

No, my wife has HK in her mini and the Burmester is much better.I have had HK in BM'S and Meridian in land rover and Burmester is just as good.

 

You must like bass ... I have my bass flat with the mid's raised.

 

I have a 3 series with the exact same HK system as your m4 as well as the burmester in my glc43, and although I haven't compared them back to back I would say the burmester is an overall better sounding system.

If you find yourself having to crank the bass and drop the treble & midrange would:

1. check if your woofers and the amplifier in the vehicle are working properly.
2. check your source material
3. check your ears. no, seriously. excessive wax buildup or congestion could cause changes in your hearing
4. If none of the first three, maybe you're just used to listening to over -eq'd sound. As a general rule of thumb, any properly functioning high end system in a high end car these days, with quality source material should require no or very very little eq to render full accurate sound.

If you find yourself cranking or cutting any eq settings in either direction the issue is either a faulty component(s) or you've trained your ears to become accustomed to imbalanced sound.

 

I've heard better, H/K in BMW, Canton in Skoda, Bowers & Wilkins in Volvo. Same system also in BMW 5 series and Audi A6

 

How long have you had the vehicle and how does she use the system....a sound system just like a vehicle needs to be broken in.....I was not that impressed at first and thought why did I spend the extra money then my audiophile buddy said just wait awhile till it breaks in....I laughed...boy was he ever right...now its starting to sound rich and expansive filling the cabin.....

 

Car is about a month old. I guess time will tell!

 

If you didn't have the burmeister option then you'd be complaining as the stock system is pretty poor- I didn't spec it and is my only regret spec wise.

 

I was wondering do you have the "surround" feature on or off. It's a different listening experience with it on. Off, it's a little one dimensional, but not bad.

 

Best tone is with the mid reduced significantly and bass and treble increased. The preferred ratios will be listener specific for sure.

Burmester definitely isn't a true audiophile system but it's also a fraction of the cost of a real audiophile setup. IMO, the burmester is adequate and is much better than the stock system that I experienced on a loaner.

 

Maybe it's just me, but I feel like MB sound systems are generally sub-par. At least that's been my experience.

I had a W204 C63 with the upgraded HK system and it was an absolute joke. So much so, that I was sure there was something wrong with it. But there wasn't...it was just that bad...

 

Note that I only have experience with 2014 BMW H/K

 

This is what I do normally, I just find mids too harsh on most systems so I cut it back, give it a try. Everyone's ears are different....

 

If anyone is looking to upgrade the system into a true audiophile setup. Check out Mike5215's tutorial on doing this with the W205. The process is going to be nearly identical for the X253.

https://w205audio.wordpress.com/

 

Thanks Mr J, that's good info. Wonder if a novice can do that and where to put the subs without losing space in the back.

 

I think the toughest part for a novice would be finding and installing a good DSP. There is a lot of cargo space below the rear deck so I'm sure a small sub enclosure and amp could fit in there with plenty of room to spare.

If I was going to do this a little more cheaply I'd just do the DSP and a true sub. Those two changes would transform the system completely. The Focals that Mike added are really just icing on the cake.

 

Someone should do this and do a nice write up with lots of photos

 

I agree--- I turned up the bass also, sounded so flat. Also lowered mids/treble.

 

This 100%. When I first got mine it was decidedly light and brash sounding. Especially compared to the HK system in our GLS.

But now at 7,400 miles it is pretty darn good, and very natural. Two things happened; 1. I got used to the sound signature 2. The system has loosened up considerably. 3. Yeah I know I said two, I do agree that the system requires a little boost in low and mids in order to get a fuller sound.

I've never felt the need to do that in any other 'upgraded' car sound system, but here it works and sounds good to me, so that is fine by me. The signature is rather bright, but I don't think reducing treble is required, simply increasing bass and mid works.

 

I've had mine for 1.5k miles or so and is fully broken in. I am aware of the mechanical break in benefits versus electrical. I'm still not impressed with the Burmester either, but if you look at my sig below, it probably wouldn't be a surprise. In the EQ setting, I ended up turning my mids down a bit, bass and treble up a bit. I pushed the fader to the front +2; it's a minor tricked that has served me well in other stock systems. Otherwise, it's just okay to me. My wife's Meridian system in her LR4 isn't really much better. She doesn't have the Meridian Ref system tho. Now THAT'S a nice factory system.


Keep in mind, in our cars, the Burmester system does not actually have Burmester components; it is just tuned by Burmester. Their home stuff is top notch, and so is Meridian; I've had bits of both in my home systems from time to time and like what they do. That being said, for $825-ish, it's not a bad deal at all.


When I pulled the HK system out of my E63, the speakers were actually, to my eye, of better quality than the speakers in the Burmester system in my '43 (noticed when the panel was off getting side acoustic glass). Some folks with the HK system say just adding more power with an aftermarket amp really wakes the speaks up. I've never done that so can't speak to it.


Audio is very subjective and very personal. What sounds good to one may not sound good to another. There is also the effect of after listening for a while, you get used to the sonic signatures of a system and it begins to become acceptable, where at first you may be more critical. The opposite is also true from time to time.


Updating our audio systems these days is quite complex and rather expensive. Although I've generally replaced stock systems in number of my past cars, and am helping a buddy upgrade his system in his '16 chevy truck, I've decided to learn to love my stock Burmester system.

 

I found this link informative on the subject when I was looking into the Burmester upgrade.


https://w205audio.wordpress.com/


Perhaps the biggest surprise for me was that there is no actual Burmester hardware in the upgraded system.

 

Obviously you missed Mr J's earlier post.

 

I did indeed. My bad - doh!

 

A car's interior is always greatly compromised in terms of speakers placements, and the myriad different interior surfaces and the roof/glass/floor that would affect the acoustic result.

Besides most people past age of 40 lose part of their hearing(especially the higher frequencies) anyway due to age, so for most of us we can't hear everything like we did back when we're in the teens anyway

 

Actual credit goes to Mike for doing the work and putting together the tutorial. He's a member here usually lurking over on the W205 forum.