Are you referring to the Burmester High End? I’ve never heard better base, even from an indoor audiophile setup.

How do you know if you have regular or high end?

im adding a 12” sub in the trunk of mine custom box

The HK System in the W221 is pretty crappy and nowhere close the standard Burmester, let alone the 3D. This likely sounds like the sound settings unless you listen to Sirius which will sound horrible on anything. Can you post your settings (pics)?

Once again it boggles my brain that one buys a 100k automobile and then has to gut the speakers and amp. and have to replace to have a decent stereo system......

The 3D Burmeister option is pretty amazing. No need to do anything aftermarket. Sounds awesome! And this is coming from a person who’s first career in life was as a sound engineer in a recording studio.

Also, it’s a car. It inherently is not going to ever come close to a home stereo system. How could it? You would have to sit in the back of the vehicle, in the center and have so much sound deadening done, it would be stupid expensive and heavy. And, this is only for stereo imaging and lack of background noise. So much else goes into a high end stereo system that a vehicles environment could not ever come close to achieving.

I realize the inside of a auto is not the perfect place to listen to stereo compared to some wonderful acoustic room. What I am saying is that for a 100k+ vehicle one would expect the very best set up. My Ford F-150 pickup has a factory installed Sony system with a football sized sub woofer under one of the rear seats and the quality of the sound is worlds better than my 2017 SL450. Even with the engine off sitting in the driveway the system in the SL is sub par. I would expect that MB would put the best of the best in the whole S series.....

So, there are 2 seperate things going on here. Physics and culture. I’ll start with physics.

To get bass frequencies you need to push a lot of air. To do this and make the bass sound musical, you need a tuned enclosure, lots of power and a way to cut off higher frequencies from transmitting through that large speaker. The nature of your pick up truck with lots of interior space and a back seat lends itself to designing and installing an enclosure that will allow for decent bass frequencies. Your roadster, on the other hand, does not. It has no backseat and very little room for any type of large speaker or enclosure. For that matter, it also does not lend itself well to any other speakers in doors, dash, etc. in comparison with a full sized truck. So, it is truly comparing apples to oranges.

Now onto the cultural aspect. Until recent times, German cars had no cup holders. Do you know why? Because the Germans felt that you should not be distracted while driving 100 plus mph ( or 160 plus kilometers) down an autobahn. What they did do was make a very safe and fast car. One that had a powerful and torquey engine, that handled well and had large brakes for quick stopping power. The stereo and cup holders were a pretty distant priority.

Onto to modern day. Yes, America makes up a great deal of German car sales and we need cup holders large enough for our Big Gulps and we also have a culture of wanting loud and booming stereos in vehicles. So, the Germans aquiessed and gave us cup holder ( maybe not large enough for Big Gulps ) but it’s a start. What they didn’t and couldn’t do in a roadster ( due to limited space and the priorities mentioned above ) is make a vehicle with a big boomy sound system. What they did do is makes some of the finest vehicles on the planet.

The Coupe does not have rotating tweeters. The grill just simply says. “High End”