Sturdy and powerful bass, a clear midrange, plenty of detail, and a bright top end. We listened to the first track, Get Ur Freak On by Missy Elliot (don't judge), and were immediately impressed. We headed out on the road with a curated playlist on a USB stick to ensure maximum quality gets fed into the amplifier. When we first experienced Acura's ELS Studio system, it was the 3D Premium version and an ear-opener. But not all Burmester systems are equal, and middling versions in some Merc products come across as merely average. You can find up to 31 speakers in a Mercedes Burmester system as well as Dolby Atmos surround sound. Overall, the soundstage is excellent (you feel like you can tell where every musician is in a room), and it shines in the mid-range, which is where even higher-end home audio can struggle. If anything, it becomes too controlled and refined there but suits plenty of other genres. That's great for most music, particularly when it comes to things like punchy kick drum sounds and bass-driven songs, but it starts to show a limitation when playing bass-heavy EDM or hip hop. The effect is substantial, well-controlled bass that doesn't push hard. Instead, it's generated in a bass chamber built into the body at the front. The bass is distinct as, with the EQS, for example, there's no subwoofer as such. Above all, though it's balanced and benefits from the cabin quietness Mercedes takes pride in. The Fender sound is also fun, which might sound like a strange observation, but that's something that can and is often lost in a higher-end audio system.Ĭlear, precise, and hefty is how we initially describe the Mercedes Burmester system. If you like to feel like the artists are in the room, the Fender systems excel. Whether it's classic BB King, Garth Brooks, Johnny Cash, Neil Young, Metallica, or more modern Lucinda Williams, Jack White, or Avenged Sevenfold, the Fender systems bring detail, warmth, texture, and power to the equation. If you're looking for a vehicle from either Nissan or Volkswagen and like blues, country, rock-and-roll, or even metal, that's where the Fender systems truly open up. It also gives you a clue as to what kind of music is going to sound best through their systems. Fender is better known for its guitars, guitar speakers, and amps than consumer audio systems but don't underestimate that. It would be easy to think Nissan works with Fender to help identify them as American products, and, to a degree, you would be right, which is also why Fender is the system of choice in a number of pickup trucks - an American staple. All of which are incredible accolades for a sound system in a car. Words we use to describe the system include harmonious, spacious, and, above all, detailed. Without any extra color added, the Volvo's Bowers & Wilkins system brings out depth and clarity to music with a 12-channel amplifier and 19 separate speakers woven together by a unique open-air sub-woofer and sound processing software. While it can deal with any genre beautifully, you can hear just how clear and concise the system is when listening to nuanced music like classical and jazz, or lovingly layered mixes of electronically and acoustically generated music like, just for example, Moby or Portishead. When it comes to clarity in car audio systems, the Harman Kardon-developed system using Bowers & Wilkins hardware is an audio upgrade benchmark. We'll talk about the Bowers & Wilkins systems available in Volvo's cars and crossovers first because it's currently the most popular amongst staff at CarBuzz and the people that move press fleet models around. These are the systems that have stood out head and shoulders above the rest in 202. Now, we know audio quality is highly subjective and tastes vary, but the CarBuzz staff spends hours and hours behind the wheel testing out these various systems with massive playlists of varying tastes. Some systems do just that, while some upgrades replace the existing speaker and amp, add a speaker or two, and call it a day. Due to things like lots of reflective glass, road noise, and minimal options for speaker placement, each system has to be tuned specifically for the vehicle to get the best out of the sound generated. That's because a car is far from the ideal place to install a sound system. We say maybe because higher-end audio in cars tends to be voraciously different. Could you, justifiably, allow it to affect your cross-shopping approach to buying a car? If music and audio quality are important to you, maybe. Should you base your car buying decision on the audio system available from the factory? Probably not.
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