SW20S

I will give turning it off a try

PatentLawyer

Not a huge difference with the volume leveling on or off.

I like the front sound focus, and with just the kiddos in the back, a reasonable choice for me.

I am torn on the surround sound option....seems really song dependent whether I like it or not. It seems to persistently muddle detail, but the added spaciousness sometimes is worth it. Going to give that one more thought as I don't want to constantly turn it on or off.

SW20S

Yeah I am torn on the surround too.

I am going in to a high end audio shop Friday to look at options. Going to do at least a sub, probably also a replacement amp. We'll see what they recommend based on what my pain points are and the type of music I listen to.

Sumfuncomet

That is is great Id like to hear what they say...Im thinking an LCi2, mono block amp and an 8-10" sub enclosure

2012 merc amg

Or you could just trade the car in for one with the 3D audio lol. Joking. Finding the used 2018 I have was a very rare find. I never thought I’d find a used one ordered fully loaded. Rare.

SW20S

Thats my thought too, going by there tomorrow afternoon Ill let you know what they say. If you look around on here a few people have done this and its made a world of difference.

I will say turning off the sound leveling did help!

Haha, thats a plan!

I looked ALL over the country for one equipped the way I wanted with the 3D sound and couldnt find one.

superpop

I can tell you that adding a Sub and Amps make a big difference. I went from stock to adding one JL Audio W7 AE 10" sub in a sealed box that was driven by a single JL Audio VXi 1000/1, single channel 1000 watt amp. Signal was grabbed off one of the subwoofer speaker leads and converted to RCA via an Audio Control LCi line converter. This made a dramatic difference but the system still had a brassy sound when you turned it up too much. Next I removed the factory amp and inserted the NAVTV box to grab the optical audio output of the in car stereo and convert this signal to Toslink and 9 channels of RCA. These 9 channels now feed the two amps with full control over all settings via my Ipad. I chose the VXi 800/8 because it is an awesome 8 channel amp and it matches the VXi 1000/1 and the two can be stacked on top of each other. The addition of the NAVTV and 2nd amp is nice and the sound is better but from a bang for the buck perspective the simple amp and sub will get you 90% of what you are looking for. Both solutions retained full bluetooth phone and navigation audio capabilities as well and I still have the factory audio settings like fader and EQ if needed. This is spendy but about the same as the 3D system and sounds far better.

2012 merc amg

I'm surprised the stock speakers are able to sound that good. I wonder if it's the same speakers used for the 3D audio as for the base system? Maybe a better quality Tweeter at the top of the door might help out or as was said in another post the addition of some capacitors to cut down on the distortion at the louder levels although I'm trying to keep the levels not too loud as I value my hearing. Had lunch today with a friend of mine who has been in Rock bands for many years and his hearing is not good, I'm trying to avoid that as long as possible. I'm amazed my hearing is not shot as I was around loud motorcycles and race cars a good portion of my life, I'm lucky I guess.

DaveW68

I went from the Bang & Olufsen system in my GL550 to this stocker Burmeister system. If I hadn't been so spoiled with the B&O, I probably wouldn't have noticed as much the big letdown of this Burmeister. And I'm certainly no audiophile. I echo others thoughts that it is surprising that MB would put such a weak stereo system in their flagship car that costs over $100k.

What I find amusing are all of the YouTube videos such as "walk around" details of the S550 where they always say how great the stock Burmeister sound system is. These folks must still be using VCR's on a daily basis to think this is a great system.

SW20S

So I met with the audio shop today, I started a new thread:

https://mbworld.org/forums/s-class-w...ml#post8253666

YasS

Get a '17 now and then a '20 in a few years.

Sumfuncomet

I had that very thought! I did buy a 17 and although I really like the 18 and up cars I am waiting for whatever happens with the economy to move forward on a 20 in a bout a year or two. Absolutely not interested in W223.