Years ago I did stereo install as a hobby. IMO, it is not the size of the 911 that makes it sound flat, or the road noise. The Burmeister lacks the mid tones in the 911 (not Macan etc) because all the speakers are small. With different types of music you may not notice it, but with many you will hear bass and highs clearly but very little in the mid range.

I haven’t modded my 991 yet but I suspect a pair of amplified mid range speakers behind the rear seat might fill in the missing sound.

I would love to hear if anyone has tried this…

 

I find it funny how one system has no highs, no lows and the other system has only highs and lows.

 

That's the way the system sounds to me as well... A great big hole right in the mid-range with the Burmester in my 991.1 Turbo S. And since there is no equalization, just a base and treble, the only way to get it to sound not completely terrible is to roll off both the bass and treble quite a bit, and it sucks just a bit less IMHO.

 

Problem is mid tones are where most of the musical 'action' is and they tend be attenuated if you have a deviated soundpath as in most cars / makes a bit of a nonsense paying $$ extra for 'hifi' with the car limitations. A good equaliser to boost mid tones probably is the best we can do short of mounting direct facing mid ranges on the dash 😳

 

I enjoy bass at -3 to -5 and treble anywhere from 0 to +5 while alternating between Pure and Surround depending on the track.

 

I generally don't like Surround Sound but it does seem to improve the sound in the 991 by boosting the mid ranges 😳

 

This thread proves that “audio quality” is subjective.

We’ve got a base-sound 991, had a Bose 981, Burmester in the 991TT, and my “pro-analyzed” 1kW system in my ‘91 GT.

The 9[98]1 systems sound better to my ears as you move ‘up’ the pricing ladder but with diminishing marginal utility at each step (like most things in life.) My ‘91s custom system sounds better in my ears when I change the equalization away from the settings that almost-perfectly reproduce that which is in the bits.

Surround Sound on either Bose or Burmester, to my ears, just results in cacophony. I have Burm set to “straight” (or whatever the least processed setting is; set 6 years ago, not been back to that menu since.)

 

For some it just doesn’t sound that great.

 

I took my 991 to a pro audio shop and apparently they replace "BM" systems quite often. The advice I got was to replace all the speakers w quality ones and run an optic cable from the PCM to an equalizer and then to an amp that will feed the speakers in the car. Apparently, the PCM is programmed to cut out certain frequencies at higher volumes which affects the sound quality. By pulling all the sounds directly from the stereo and running them through this other setup, you can get the full spectrum and it will sound much better. I will get a second opinion and get back to you on what they say. The fix sounds like a much bigger project than I thought. At this point, I would never spend the extra money on the BM or the bose. I would just go aftermarket after I got the car.

 

Half a decade ago, I had a pro-audio guy come over to “analyze” the stereo I’d put in my ‘91 928 GT. (Long story short, he actually found a ‘bug’ in the system’s response and we figured out how to fix it.)

Anyway…

He asked if he could do the Burmester system in my 991TT.

What he told me was that the Burmester in the 991TT was one of the best systems he’d tested in terms of faithful reproduction of the source material.

So…

… bull$hi+.

 

My brother has a '91 GT - manual - loves it, but doesn't drive it enough.

 

faithful under what conditions, it’s a moving target in a vehicle.

 

Obviously if you have a megaphone broadcasting in the cabin along with the BM, a measurement at the head rest will be vastly different than without.

My post was in response to the claim that “BM cuts out certain frequencies” which I find highly dubious unless it is within a particular context. If it is true, then it behooves one to figure out why, rather than assuming it is a “mistake” or otherwise a bad thing and throwing out the BM system because of it. You think PAG and BM thought “hey let’s -5dB 4.0 to 4.4 kHz band for %hits and grins?”

 

I hope he’s changing the fluids every couple of years.

 

I'm just not buying it... IMHO not only is the 991.1 Burmester not the 'best', I find it shockingly bad.

Though there is certainly plenty of information missing on the testing he did as well. .1 or .2? Playing a high res digital file? Burmester settings? What exactly was he testing and was it just an empirical test (like frequency response) or actually listening to well known source material?

It's kind of moot, different folks have vastly differing opinions on everything from ice cream flavors to world politics, not claiming I am correct, just that I personally find the 991.1 Turbo S Burmester audio system annoyingly bad.