Adding a sub / amp to Burmester stereo

[cfoster]

As above has anyone wired an external sub/amp into their Burmester stereo system? I'm pleased with the system in my S63 coupe but its lacking bass, particularly at the rear. I can see that it is possible by getting a feed from the front bass speakers and converting to RCA but wondered if there is a guide to follow? It seems there are some from the US but of course the loom/plug and play thing would need to be bought across the pond? Imagine all models of car/Burmester will be the same fitting wise....

 

[John]

You could run a feed from the front bass speakers but bear in mind none of the speakers receive a "clean" (correct timing / equalisation / voltage) from the amplifier - those 8" woofers in the front will undoubtedly but cut too high so you are missing out on the lowest frequencies.

What you should be doing is installing a digital sound processing (DSP) module after the stock amp (e.g. JL Fix 82) to bring the output from the amp back to a "clean" signal and then running further amplification off that for the speakers you intend to upgrade where required.

I think the smaller cars have 6" instead of 8" woofers in the footwell but that's the only difference I think - the largest cars have 8".

 

[cfoster]

ok noted cheers, would installing a JL Fix 82 be fairly plug and play or is a lot of cutting a splicing required?

 

[John]

Not lots but you would need to cut the factory speaker wires to run them into the JL Fix 82 and then the output of whichever amp(s) back through the speaker wires.

You can then add in the additional mono amp to power your sub, as well as an amp(s) to power the existing speakers.

Arguably if you are going to do it, it's probably worth replacing the speakers at the same time (front and rear door midbass and tweeters as possibly the footwell woofers) with better ones as the speakers supplied are crap (don't be thinking Burmester provide Mercedes with "Burmester speakers" - they just use crap old speakers they found in a jumble sale and Burmester do the tuning of the system and allow their name to be used).

I am contemplating this kind of upgrade too (the above is standard bill of fare for most modern cars and has been like it since at least the W211) but cheap it aint so I am not how I am going to proceed as yet.

 

[cfoster]

Agreed on the branding of speakers against junk, pretty common on almost all cars, to be fair though apart from the bass being all up front it doesn't sound too bad, better than the HK system in our ML and M4. Only the B&O system in my old S5 I would say is better. I don't keep cars for too long and to plummet a lot of dollar replacing all the speakers, plus time doing it probably doesn't make sense for me. I'll look into the JL fix I think but may try the simpler option which seems to be to use a Parrot harness to get the feed working and see how it sounds, see here:

Simple Burmester Sound Fix - Option 1 - Add A Trunk Subwoofer (JL Dual 8's) - MBWorld.org Forums

 

[John]

That's a pretty neat compromise actually.

I guess the front subs are not cut off too high then... they just struggle to reproduce the lowest frequencies but given they are shallow-mount units and where they are, there's bugger all from for the bass to develop.

 

[cfoster]

Exactly yes, I think its a case of poor mounting, vibration and more than likely not enough power to them makes them sound a bit crap. I've got all the bits I need except the adaptors so may as well give it a go with the Parrot lead!

 

[John]

*there's bugger all room for the bass to develop.

At that sort of money, it's worth a punt.

Let me know how you get on!