W214 Volume Decreases Automatically EQUIPPED with Burmester 4D
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W214 E450
W214 Volume Decreases Automatically EQUIPPED with Burmester 4D
I got my W214 E450 last month. Its equipped with the Burmester 4d speakers. I usually listen to music at full volume, with the settings set to +8 BASS and +6 TREBLE along with 3d sound profile. It was completely fine for a month and suddenly during a long trip out of states, the bass started to stutter everytime when the song had a long bass drag. In the beginning I turned of the car and locked it and then unlocked and started it again and it fixed the problem. But eventually it started happening frequently and then later on the turn off and on thing stopped working. Once i got home the problem seemed to continue, the local dealership diagnosed it and thought it needed a software update but it did not fix it. Second time I sent my car back to the dealership, they changed the amplifier and thought that it might fix it but it did not work either. Now its been 4 days since my car is sitting at the service centre and today they updated me by telling that the problems seems to be a control unit. I lack the technical knowledge and am unaware if anybody else has faced this problem here, I want an insight if somebody went through this and if the problem really is a faulty control unit.
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From: Tennessee
W214 E450
I find it surprising that you listen to music at full volume in the W214 with the Burmester 4D. I listen to loud music and past about 70% volume it starts to hurt. Maybe you do and that's fine but with your base set to +8 as well I think you may have damaged your speakers with the volume at max. What is a "long bass drag"? Is that something in rap or hip-hop that have the long drawn out bass booooooooms?
Regarding the dealership and the mechanics working on it. They are just guessing much of the time when it comes to the whole MBUX system. If there is a code then it's more straightforward, but these type of issues are much more trial and error which is what you are experiencing. I can't say that I've heard of others having the issue you described but you may be in the 0.01% of W214 owners in how you listen to music. Like you, I like loud music but not max in this car and the EQ I keep at flat (0) and instead use the sound personalization to tune the sound. Then I listen to music from a USB drive and have been growing a collection of Dolby Atmos music that sounds amazing in this car. I had an issue that has been going on for over a year that I posted about here. I brought it in 3 times to get this fixed and one time they had it for nearly 2 weeks and still no solution. The engineering team in Germany have been working on a solution for over 2 months and believe they finally have a software fix. I bring the car next week for the update. I bring this up only to point out that if it's a software issue, it vlcan take a while to fix and if you are experiencing a rare issue like you (and me) are, it will be challenging for them to figure out the root cause.
Regarding the dealership and the mechanics working on it. They are just guessing much of the time when it comes to the whole MBUX system. If there is a code then it's more straightforward, but these type of issues are much more trial and error which is what you are experiencing. I can't say that I've heard of others having the issue you described but you may be in the 0.01% of W214 owners in how you listen to music. Like you, I like loud music but not max in this car and the EQ I keep at flat (0) and instead use the sound personalization to tune the sound. Then I listen to music from a USB drive and have been growing a collection of Dolby Atmos music that sounds amazing in this car. I had an issue that has been going on for over a year that I posted about here. I brought it in 3 times to get this fixed and one time they had it for nearly 2 weeks and still no solution. The engineering team in Germany have been working on a solution for over 2 months and believe they finally have a software fix. I bring the car next week for the update. I bring this up only to point out that if it's a software issue, it vlcan take a while to fix and if you are experiencing a rare issue like you (and me) are, it will be challenging for them to figure out the root cause.
Senior Member
Joined: Jun 2024
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From: DFW Texas
GL450, E450, Porsche 718 GTS
My uneducated guess would be that if you’re playing your bass cranked up to 8 at full volume, your amp eventually overheats and starts distorting. Maybe turn down the volume a bit and see if it persists.
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W214 E450
Long bass drag isnt some term, it means that when the bass keeps bumping for a long 3-4 seconds. From the looks of it I do agree that the people at dealership are also clueless. They did end up telling me about a faulty control unit but i lack the knowledge about car parts. I like to listen to heavy hip-hop songs and I do agree that blasting the music on max is annoying for everybody else who sits in my car and they always end up telling me to lower it. The main thing is I bought the car on 9th May 2026, and for a whole month I had the same speaker usage and at that time nothing was overheating or faulty. So the question is if it wasnt a problem for a whole month, then how did it go wrong out of nowhere. I did try to play songs on a lower volume but it came to a point that even with me keeping the volume at 20-30% it still happened. I do home they do come up with a solution and I get to drive my car soon.
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W214 E450
It might be the case. Although is it possible that once I overheated that part, it stays the same later on too? Because I did think that the constant heavy load might be the culprit and ended up trying to keep the volume low but after sometimes it started happening on that volume level too.
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Senior Member
Joined: Jun 2024
Posts: 470
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From: DFW Texas
GL450, E450, Porsche 718 GTS
You may have blown the woofer. They’re not designed to blast full volume for extended durations. Just like my Porsche top speed is 180 mph but it’s not designed to drive 180 all day long.
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Joined: Mar 2002
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From: Nappanee Indiana
2026 E450
Long bass drag isnt some term, it means that when the bass keeps bumping for a long 3-4 seconds. From the looks of it I do agree that the people at dealership are also clueless. They did end up telling me about a faulty control unit but i lack the knowledge about car parts. I like to listen to heavy hip-hop songs and I do agree that blasting the music on max is annoying for everybody else who sits in my car and they always end up telling me to lower it. The main thing is I bought the car on 9th May 2026, and for a whole month I had the same speaker usage and at that time nothing was overheating or faulty. So the question is if it wasnt a problem for a whole month, then how did it go wrong out of nowhere. I did try to play songs on a lower volume but it came to a point that even with me keeping the volume at 20-30% it still happened. I do home they do come up with a solution and I get to drive my car soon.
its highly unlikely that you bought the car on 9th May 2026
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From: Tennessee
W214 E450
That said, yes the 4D is the bass resonators in the two front seats. They don't produce sound in the traditional sense but they will cause physical vibrations in your back.
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Aug 2014
Posts: 1,890
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From: Tennessee
W214 E450
Long bass drag isnt some term, it means that when the bass keeps bumping for a long 3-4 seconds. From the looks of it I do agree that the people at dealership are also clueless. They did end up telling me about a faulty control unit but i lack the knowledge about car parts. I like to listen to heavy hip-hop songs and I do agree that blasting the music on max is annoying for everybody else who sits in my car and they always end up telling me to lower it. The main thing is I bought the car on 9th May 2026, and for a whole month I had the same speaker usage and at that time nothing was overheating or faulty. So the question is if it wasnt a problem for a whole month, then how did it go wrong out of nowhere. I did try to play songs on a lower volume but it came to a point that even with me keeping the volume at 20-30% it still happened. I do home they do come up with a solution and I get to drive my car soon.
My advice is wait for the dealership to diagnose and fix which could take a while as these systems are much more complex than the sound systems of yesteryear. Then when you do get it back, take it easy on the volume and bass. I'm guessing you are young which is no dig, we were all young at some point. When I was younger I listened to very loud music all the time and now that I am bit older I wish I hadn't. I still listen to it loud every now and then. Sometimes too loud, but I keep it at a comfortable volume most of the time. Still can't help myself when one of my many favorite songs come on.
Good luck and hope they get it fixed asap.
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Joined: Jul 2019
Posts: 20
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W124
Especially with "PREMIUM" sound, the EQ options are there through defined ranges (specially chosen for each car series). +8 in one car might be slightly different to +8 on a different car, all this is with the concept of not blowing the subwoofer from simple user configuration.
What you might be encountering is an issue with Windows (audio devices with option of allowing applications to control the volume), try and disable any setting related to Audio Normalization, and see if that does the trick.
What you might be encountering is an issue with Windows (audio devices with option of allowing applications to control the volume), try and disable any setting related to Audio Normalization, and see if that does the trick.
