Automotive Sound

Randy Myers

Randy Myers

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My new Mercedes has a Burmester sound system in it. I did not realize what a nice sound system was in the car when we ordered it. I did not know that Burmester Audiosystems even built auto sound systems.

Upon research I see that Burmester builds sound systems for three companies; Bugatti, Porsche, and Mercedes Benz. I like that it can handle FLAC files up to 192 KHz (maybe higher, that is the highest I have tried). It plays them beautifully!
 
Glad to hear you are enjoying your car audio!

If it’s still the same, Porsche has 3 levels of sound system: base, Bose, and Burmester. I’ve read that the Bose and Burmester systems are nice. I can unequivocally say the base system is terrible.


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Awesome!!! I remember the Levinson system in a Lexus we had. Nice sounding system for sure!

The only thing I have to do now is get a thumb drive that is USB-C. I am using an adapter which works fine, however a straight USB-C (all ports in the car are USB-C) so that the thumb drive does not stick up so much; not so obtrusive :) would be nice. It does sound pretty good.
 
Randy Myers said:
Awesome!!! I remember the Levinson system in a Lexus we had. Nice sounding system for sure!

The only thing I have to do now is get a thumb drive that is USB-C. I am using an adapter which works fine, however a straight USB-C (all ports in the car are USB-C) so that the thumb drive does not stick up so much; not so obtrusive :) would be nice. It does sound pretty good.
Click to expand...

Does your car use SD Cards? SD cards are relatively cheap, can store several hundred Mb.
I really like the B&O system in my Audi. Much better than Bose systems and even ML that I have had in the past.
PS. Of course the best automotive sound comes from a big NA Engine.
 
nicoff said:
Does your car use SD Cards? SD cards are relatively cheap, can store several hundred Mb.
I really like the B&O system in my Audi. Much better than Bose systems and even ML that I have had in the past.
PS. Of course the best automotive sound comes from a big NA Engine.
Click to expand...

I do not believe there are any SD slots. Too bad, my last Mercedes did have a slot, but could only handle MP3 <yuck>. It appears the car only has USB-C ports but, the Burmester can handle high resolution just fine. They did not mention DSF in the manual as an audio format supported therefor I assume PCM is the best it can do... but for a car audio system it does a spectacular job... FLAC 192 Khz play beautifully....

I did pick up a small USB-C thumb drive. It is physically small so it is not in the way, and it works great!
 
Can't believe this just popped up as I was searching the Porsche site. I spent last week being driven around in a Porsche Panamera and was really surprised that it had a Bose system.

I just went to the Build site to see what was available. The Bose was a $1700 option from whatever the Stock system is.

BUT, the $7600 option was the Burmester system which I would have loved to hear.

The 12 Speaker Bose system in my Buick is really not that bad when adjusted properly, but I was just blown away that a $120K German Luxury car would even come with a Bose and not have Burmester or Blaupunkt as the Stock Audio option.

Fortunately for the actual owner, his main audio setup is Alexa so the Bose is a step up for him.

My 2019 Santa Fe has an decent Infinity system once you dig deep enough thru the menus to find the good settings.
 
Randy Myers said:
Awesome!!! I remember the Levinson system in a Lexus we had. Nice sounding system for sure!

The only thing I have to do now is get a thumb drive that is USB-C. I am using an adapter which works fine, however a straight USB-C (all ports in the car are USB-C) so that the thumb drive does not stick up so much; not so obtrusive :) would be nice. It does sound pretty good.
Click to expand...

I use a tiny 64GB Thumb Drive for all my music, really low profile.

51w6XQlq9%2BL._SL1000_.jpg
 
Shadowfax said:
Can't believe this just popped up as I was searching the Porsche site. I spent last week being driven around in a Porsche Panamera and was really surprised that it had a Bose system.

I just went to the Build site to see what was available. The Bose was a $1700 option from whatever the Stock system is.

BUT, the $7600 option was the Burmester system which I would have loved to hear.

The 12 Speaker Bose system in my Buick is really not that bad when adjusted properly, but I was just blown away that a $120K German Luxury car would even come with a Bose and not have Burmester or Blaupunkt as the Stock Audio option.

Fortunately for the actual owner, his main audio setup is Alexa so the Bose is a step up for him.

My 2019 Santa Fe has an decent Infinity system once you dig deep enough thru the menus to find the good settings.
Click to expand...

Get the cheapest system you can & then take it to someone that really knows what they are doing. For half the money & a "proper"install you will be light years ahead
 
Shadowfax said:
I use a tiny 64GB Thumb Drive for all my music, really low profile.
Click to expand...

Yea, I use one of these in my wife's SUV. I could not find anything that small for USB-C. I prefer not using an adapter because it defeats the purpose. The one I found was on the smaller side, but not as small as these USB A.
 
I am surprised that more car manufacturers don't use SD Cards. They have good capacity and don't cost an arm and a leg. Not to mention that they go fully into their slot and become inconspicuous.
 
nicoff said:
I am surprised that more car manufacturers don't use SD Cards. They have good capacity and don't cost an arm and a leg. Not to mention that they go fully into their slot and become inconspicuous.
Click to expand...

My guess is they assume everyone wants to use a smartphone and bluetooth. At least my Buick still has a CD Player.
 
nicoff said:
I am surprised that more car manufacturers don't use SD Cards. They have good capacity and don't cost an arm and a leg. Not to mention that they go fully into their slot and become inconspicuous.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I loved that my last car had a slot right in the dash that a SD card slipped in and you were done. I guess they have determined that USB-C is the future and that is the way they are going. Not bad for phone integration, etc., but much harder to put music in the car as inconspicuous.

However it is not really necessary for the phone, I mean things like streaming from the phone is Bluetooth and the car has wireless charging for your phone.... so having 5 USB-C ports seems maybe a bit more then is needed... I would trade them for a SD card slot :)....
 
I had a Bose in my 2011 Porsche Cayenne that I thought was decent until I had Reus Audio change out the Harmon Kardon in my 05 E55 with a new Kenwood head unit, Reus custom sub amp and speakers.

Other than the Kenwood head unit, this system looks completely stock and blows away every audiofile who has heard it.

This system was so much better than my Bose that i had them do the Cayenne shortly thereafter. Kept the Cayenne's Bose head unit, added new custom sub, amplifier, and speakers. I later compared it to my friends Burmeister in his Turbo Cayenne.

The Burmeister was way better than the original Bose system, but Bose head unit combo with Reus amp/speakers beat the Burmeister for resolution, bass and musicality. My friend then later had his other SUV done by Reus.

www.royceaudio.com/

These guys fly all over the country doing installs of their products. Highly recommended if you have a Bose or HK system that you want to upgrade
 
mallen123 said:
I had a Bose in my 2011 Porsche Cayenne that I thought was decent until I had Reus Audio change out the Harmon Kardon in my 05 E55 with a new Kenwood head unit, Reus custom sub amp and speakers.

Other than the Kenwood head unit, this system looks completely stock and blows away every audiofile who has heard it.

This system was so much better than my Bose that i had them do the Cayenne shortly thereafter. Kept the Cayenne's Bose head unit, added new custom sub, amplifier, and speakers. I later compared it to my friends Burmeister in his Turbo Cayenne.

The Burmeister was way better than the original Bose system, but Bose head unit combo with Reus amp/speakers beat the Burmeister for resolution, bass and musicality. My friend then later had his other SUV done by Reus.

www.royceaudio.com/

These guys fly all over the country doing installs of their products. Highly recommended if you have a Bose or HK system that you want to upgrade
Click to expand...

Very interesting and impressive. I had never heard of these folks. Price wise, how does a system by this company compare to a Bose or Burmeister?
 
$2-3K to start - basically keeping the stock head unit and replacing all the speakers, custom sub and amp for the sub. This also includes a center channel tweeter that really helps with imaging. This is what I did in my Cayenne and it was better the Burmeister. Not louder, but more musical, better highs, and better defined bass.

$3K is easy to justify replacing a base level Bose system as the improvement was so dramatic, but probably not cost effective to replace a $7k Burmeister. That said, I heard Reus's $15k system in a Bentley that has their tube amp and their best speakers, and it was really impressive.
They specialize in Audiophile level audio systems that look completely stock. For later models they keep the stock head unit and do all their magic via speakers, cabling, electronics and tuning.

I first heard them at the Show in Newport Beach in 2014. There was a Ferrari 458 Spyder out front of the hotel with their system and I couldn't believe how good it sounded.
 
That is very cool! Sounds like they would be great.

So far I am happy with the Burmester Audio system in my car. I am equally sure that it is not the same as the one they put in the Porsche. For my small car it is very nice though!
 
I have the BMW X5M. It has a fantastic harman kardon stereo in it. My last BMW, the 550x has Bose, that sounded awful.


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