RedlineRallys

Audiophiles,

I just recently took delivery of my 991S that was equipped with Burmester sound. I am trying to determine what I should use as my primary music source and was hoping to get some input from the experts.

I had plan's on using a USB powered hard drive and loading it up with music that is high quality. If I just fill the drive with MP3's, will I easily be able to sort music? Does the system have genre filtering that you can enter in the properties of the file?

I have an Android phone and was hoping to not use that as my music source as it will be annoying having to connect and disconnect it everytime I want my music but read it has better sorting capabilities if you use your phone.

My last question is with regards to the setting's for the system. Are there "ideal" settings for certain types of music or for the system as a whole or would the stock settings be best?

Sorry for the "audio-newbieness"

Thanks all,
John

jlanka

You gotta play around with it to find your own sweet spot, which will be different for different music genres. I use a 32GB USB stick, and whatever I like I copy to the car's 40 GB drive (I think its 40GB, could be 30?)

Bacura

I'm old school. I use my CD player but I also have DVD audio discs which sound awesome. I usually just listen to satellite radio.

Mbiondo

You are short changing yourself with MP3 files-- compressed files, by nature, while convenient, are limited within the Hz band zone. You will not fully exploit the Burmaster system by using this source. Unfortunately, only the CD can (to a certain extent!) bring this system to life. Now, if you really want to explore the full potential of the Burmaster, get yourself an LP player, a phone amp, and listen to the music come alive. You will, of course, need to take out the front passenger seat, add a table supported by vibration eliminating supports, and secure the phone amp and turntable to it. It will look real nice, and anyone sitting in the backseats will undoubtedly acknowledge you as a true audiophile. Take pictures, too; we're curious as to how it comes out!

jlanka

RedlineRallys

Thanks guys!

Mbiondo - You first! :P

Mbiondo

It's the Holidays. Having joyous fun!

M. Schneider

Use a FLAC lossless app for HD storage, or use your Android to store music as well, the Android supports this.
MP3 recording's are not HiFi.

P.S., Edit. Apple's Lossless app is excellent and the iphone 5 supports this.

chuck911

+1 MP3 is too compressed to qualify as hi-fi. Use Apple lossless or whatever else that is zero or as close as you can get to zero compression. It may not seem like much of a difference to you right now, but that's because you're already used to hearing crappy compressed music. But if you make the effort to play only uncompressed files long enough to become familiar with how it sounds, then if you go back you will almost certainly appreciate the difference.

Also yes vinyl does sound better. But rather than install a turntable, why not simply record the output of a good LP onto DAT ? Michael Fremer does this and is able to demo for people the differences between high end cartridges. If that sounds like too much work just go out and buy Janice Ian 'Breaking Silence' on DVD and play that. Good music, fantastic recording.

berndt

Doing high res needle drops is an artform.
Worthy of a discrete thread, imho. Will the burmester recognize high resolution files?

Hammer911

Standard reference for high-end audio comparisons: Donald Fagan "The Nightfly"

Bacura

I have a few DVD audio discs. They are VERY hard to find. I went to a high end music store in Toronto and I was told they no longer sell them. My Santana DVD disc is just crazy awesome with the burmester.

Med Man

You could burn your own DVD-A discs using high res source material.

If playing from USB/Phone, does anyone know what bit/sample rates are supported by the Burmester?

And for the true audiophiles - I know - 80% of sound quality is in the production and mastering of the music in the first place, but the remaining 20% is in the storage format... (and that is not CD)

handful

I use an audiophile dap, Ibasso X100. The user interface is non existent but the sound is very, very good and it is capable of storing enough music to satisfy long distance travelers.

IndyRob

Longer post, but it’s after a year of messing with the Burmester..so this is all I know.

The cheapest Burmester home system they make is 100k. If you get it with everything audio and video, you can spend 450k. You can get a morsel of a taste of it for about 6k in a 911, but I feel it’s more like call it 3k, because everyone is going to upgrade at least to the Bose. My guy says at least do the Bose for resale. Yeah, I’m always worried about resale on these 100k cars! Anyways, I think at this price point and as crazy as all the other options we get on these cars and the reasons, this last 3k option box check mark is not out of line. Still few, very few go for it. But I feel this will change.

You could get a Burmester in a Bugatti Veyron but I believe it was actually an option, not standard. Those are 7 figures. The option was something like another 25k. Then the Panamera got it second. I read Porsche and Burmester argued about 4 years about it. Porsche saying they have to have a heavy hand it speaker placement, design of the car and panels and the weight of the parts, Mr. Burmester saying, through is wireless spectacles, no one is going to tell us how to design or place the stereo or speakers. A German ego standoff, but it finally got resolved.

One audiophile mag simply said the Porsche system is so good, it rivals the home system at a fraction of the price, it’s like they throw in a free Porsche to carry it around in.

Now you can get it standard in the all new upgraded S-550, MB, for only 92k, with an S Class limo to carry you and it around in! It’s a slightly detuned one at a Paltry 575 watts, and 13 speakers, not the 1000 in the Pany, or 825 in the 911, which is just because 911 powers the speakers in 2 doors not 4. Mercedes has trumped Porsche though, and Burmester has started class warfare realizing MB will probably move a lot more product than Stuttgart. For $6,700 more and the addition of two expensive luxury packages you can add the 24 speaker 1500 watt Burmester in the Mercedes flagship, which I’m guessing surpasses the Porsche version.

Before I heard one at the dealer on the first one they got in that they let me play with in the showroom, I had never heard of Burmester, and no one I speak with, even pretty hoity toity persons have ever heard of Burmester. I’m guessing it’s the 100k, minimum that was in effect till the car audio. With Mercedes arrival though it will probably become better known as the rich man’s Bose.
After my friend heard mine, he’s totally unable to even turn on his Lexus Mark Levinson, and is now on a nightly mission scanning auto trader looking for the cheapest entry point to Burmester. Actually I believe it would be the new Macan S at $49,900, and just order one option, Burmester for $5,700. If he goes the 911 route there are only 28 new ones, and 17 used with Burmester in the WHOLE country. That is covering 3 model years, 2012-2014. That is less than 1 per state, so few people have ponied up for them, and even fewer dealers get them. If you step up the Turbo S, other than some leather and carbon fiber choices, it’s about the only option you can add, for a very reasonable $3500. Still, I know a lot of those guys wives are willing to let them spend 182k, but not go the 185k, so they will have to pass.

Anyways back to topic, which is how to get a little better sound from the music source.

I think the best for me has been the DVD audio disks. If you root around Amazon you’ll probably be able to find 10 of them or so that might interest you. I bought 20 of them, but went a little crazy and ended up with some Asian Violin stuff. Two of my favorite though where Steely Dan Gaucho, and Beatles Love.

Next I learned about HD Tracks site, that you can download files that in MP3 would be 3mbs, but these run 100 mbs. I got sucked in because it said, hey…you don’t need any other equipment, it will work with I-Tunes. It does work with I-Tunes, and you can download the mammoth uncompressed files into your library, but if you try to add them to your Iphone, or ITouch they are not compatible. It has something to do with you need a DAC converter. So then wanting to play the two albums I bought and downloaded I found out basically there might be a workaround by buying a little handheld DAC and hardrive unit that may work in the Porsche PCM via USB, or even headphone aux… but it was another $1,000 but I hadn’t found anyone who had actually got it to work. The other problem with HD Tracks is although their library is expanding, not everything is at the 24bit oversampling 192kbs rate, some is less than that which is till uncompressed and better than mp3’s, but what about all the songs I listen to the most?
So what works best for me at least for now is pretty easy is to make sure you go into your ITunes. Go to “Edit”, “Preferences”, “General”, “Import Settings” and take the default off 128kbs, and put on 320kbs. You can also check the VBR button. Variable Bit Rate is a way to let it stream at 320kbs but on quiet parts of the track it doesn’t keep the bit rate at 320 it can scale down and save space. I find most my songs average about 280, which is not a lot of space savings, but supposedly not really any loss in quality from the fixed 320 bit rate.

The songs you buy on ITunes come into your library in AAC format. It itself is superior to MP3’s. Early on, when storage didn’t come in 64gb sticks and MicroSD’s, but more like 4gb chunks, but still I did rip all my music at 192kbs figuring 50% more data my ear could actually hear over the 128kbs. I’m very glad I did that, because I took most of those disks to a second hand store and cashed them in thinking CD’s where the next VHS tapes, which is now coming true.

What I don’t know is- what is better quality an AAC, or a 320VBR MP3. Probably a close call to an untrained ear. If you are an android guy like me on the phone side, you can put Google Play Music on your computer where your ITunes is and it will automatically in the background upload to the cloud your first 20,000 songs you put on ITunes, all for free. If you convert your AAC to 320 VBR MP3’s it will also upload those and play them back at 320 bit rate from the cloud. Some of the songs that sound better to me at the higher bit rate are Fleetwood Mac Tusk, Jason Mraz Dynamo of Volition, Passenger Let Her Go, and Harry Nilsson Coconut.

Lastly, if you stream, paying just a few bucks for Apple Radio or upgrading your Pandora free account to Pandora One, I think 192kbs on Pandora One up from 128kbs, and possibly 256kbs on Apple Radio. But android will get you 320kbs from anything from your library that you saved at that quality. Pandora upgrade is $36 a year and stops the ads, and plays like 4 hours before asking to disconnect you.

I would like to hear anyone who successfully hooked up some DAC with these big uncompressed files and is able to access, and sort them through the PCM menu on the fly if that is possible.

As much as I am a fan of the Burmester, on a good road with the top down, it goes unused and takes a back seat to the PSE button.