Was strongly consideriing the Burm for my upcoming TT so I went to compare the Bose vs. Burm in Panemeras. To my dismay, I did not find a significant difference in the sound. The Burm was highly customizable but I think the $4k could be better spent because the Bose is a very formidable stock stereo. My sales guy seemed to agree that the Berm was not a neccessity and that he has not sold any Cayenne's yet with the Berm.

However, I have not decided either way yet!

Of course my service guy still thinks the Berm is to die for BUT only for digital music. Most of my downloaded music is of decent quality, but is not always HD. I do plan on listening to plenty of satellite radio when I am not listening to NPR or Stern - so then would the Burm be worth it?

 

hard to comment without knowing your listening preferences.

do you listen loud, do you listen critically while on your vehicle?

If you will be using your vehicle's sound system at relatively low volume and as background music or to FM/XM programs most of the time - I think you will find the Bose system more than sufficient. I am an audiophile, my stereo system at home costs more money than my Cayenne, but I have no urge to upgrade from Bose - because my wife is with me when I drive my Cayenne most of the time and she hates loud music, upgraded stereo system will be totally useless to me. (she would normally turn the stereo off as soon as she sits on the front passenger seat - relocating Porche's stereo power button beside the ignition will be my first upgrade when it becomes available )

but - if you like to get lost with your musical experience while inside your vehicle - by all means go for the Burm system. As I have mentioned before - this is one of the least expensive Burmester system you will ever find. The complete Burmester Reference line will be more expensive than most cars in this forum and one of the best sounding system I've heard. If budget is no concern and you have excellent collection of high quality music - I'd say go for it.

If you think you will be happier to spend the extra $4k in performance upgrades (and the Burm system did not have that great impact on you when you experienced it) I'd say just get the Bose.

maybe go back to the dealership with your best high resolution music files and compare again.

 

Do you find that "loud" to your wife is "barely acceptable normal listening volume" to you? Seems to be my predicament. I've only been married for 18 days, so I guess I had better get used to it, lol.

 

yup... and she goes as far as saying I have a hearing condition

 

You know what my answer would be...but just had to respond after I saw 85 hits and just a couple of responses.

As for your post:

"The Burm was highly customizable" : Yes.
" I think the $4k could be better spent" : May be.
"The Bose is a very formidable stock stereo" : Yes.
" My sales guy seemed to agree that the Burm was not a neccessity" : Yes. But show me your build and I can tell you ten other
options that are not a necessity and that term necessity is so relative. Since when did we start listening to our sales advisors The last time I saw and spoke to one...he had no clue what a compass display was and he also told me that CTT is way too overpowered
" He has not sold any Cayenne's yet with the Burm: What does that got to do with anything ??


My take on the BURM:

1. Ultra high performance car needs an ultra high performance audio system.
2. I would'nt mind having the Bugatti Veyron of the car audio systems on a ride that I am spending over 100K.
3. Only cars that have Burmester is the Porsche Pana/Cayennes and the Bugatti Veyron: Does that tell you something.
4. It's exclusivity. Recently I took my friend for a ride on my 911 the other day and he went Huh !!! Your Carrera has a BOSE.
Interesting my Mazda has a BOSE too. Can't wait to have him in my Cayenne.
5. Please get a Burmester brochure that Porsche made for their Panameras and you will relaize that it is actually priced
appropriately (in fact I would say even cheap compared to 1K for plastic wheel acrh extensions and running boards)
for all the hand built german engineering. Go try getting one for your home. The lowest price for that is $42K.
6. I personally listened to both back to back for a good twenty minutes with various sources: FM, I-pod, audio CD and different music:
Indian (Bollywood film music), western classical and Miley Cyrus/Taylor swift (disclaimer here is that this was my daughter's
CD which was lying around in my car). Boy, the difference was light years ahead. Check several threads on the Panamera section and you'll know why they all sing praises for the Burm.

MY FINAL THOUGHTS: I do not advocate the Burmester over the Bose for anyone who cannot tell the difference between the two when they listened to it back to back with a good quality uncompressed format CD or for those who majority of the time listen to NPR or other talk shows/sports broadcast/MP3 files.

 

Are satellite radio stations high enough quality to truly enjoy the Burmester?

 

If you can afford to spend over 100K on a vehicle what's 4k for a top of the line sound system, should be like pocket change... Unfortunately I wouldn't know what that's like...yet.

 

same

 

i found the surround options on the berm were too synthetic and the sound was too placed in the car

anyway, in my view only a passenger could ever really tell as the diver is hopefully allocating more attention to driving. in other words, sit in your driveway and you will love it - get on the road and the brain will not be able to properly distinguish anyway

 

No sat radio is not high quality. Some of the more popular chan's have better quality and most are just mediocre. Quality the Bose is fine for sat but if you want some extra bass and bump then the Burm will deliver.

 

Different strokes for different folks. If you can appreciate something, get it. If you don't, it's no big deal and you can opt for plenty of other things.

I'm no audiophile and don't see the need for a high end system in a moving vehicle. My problem is to find good content to listen to - I'm at a stage of being bored with my own music, but most of the new stuff isn't that interesting. I listen to Pandora at work just to get some background music. Even NPR or many interesting podcasts can get boring. Incidentally that's the same way I feel about movies these days.

 

For your needs, I would go BOSE but please do yourself a favor. Get a nice quality CD (where the sound/songs are very familiar) and spend a good twenty minutes (ten minutes on each system) with all different settings. Then report back to us. If you are like me (I keep cars for a looooong time), you would'nt want to make the wrong choice. If you really can't tell the difference I would certainly go BOSE which is still a very very good system.

 

Get use to it. Same story here for 34 years or marriage and 3 years of dating.

 

Bose has the worst high-end vehicle stereo setup in the market. We've got a component front-end with a Sub...all connected to separate Amps...and it still sounds terrible. Flat mids & highs and no subsonics at all.
They use paper cones (really ? In the 21st Century) for the mids and highs - nuff said there. Too slow to react and no punch. No presence.

The Subwoofer is NOT a subwoofer, but a bass-extender. Its cross'd over WAY to high; thus becomes muddy. A subwoofer should punch (and only be crossed over up to 50 or 60hz max). I've used my Test-Tones CD and got way over 100hz out of it.
Its why the system only sounds fair with the Mids/Highs turned up and the bass turned down.

Then again, its good for talk radio and classical... so maybe that is what they expect 'us' to listen to.

Its a shame they (and Mercedes) got away from Becker Audio. My older S-Class has a Becker system and it rocks. The subs are only 6" (four of them) and they give tones down in the 20s... its all about design.

I'm going to try and install a low-pass filter on my "Subwoofer"; However, its difficult to find a coil rated at 1 ohm, to successfully fix that issue.

 

So what do you recommend as a option for the Cayenne S if the Burmester cost too much? Stay with the stock system with 10 speakers and upgrade or get the Bose option for $1650?