Burmester sound system option

[prj]

According to Porsche on 26 March 2025 below —but is this just “marketing” or does DOLBY Atmos increase listening quality? Hope that someone here has experienced the two in a Taycan and can share with us the answer to that question.

I have - absolutely no difference that I can tell between my MY22 and MY26, both with Burmester.

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[Fun TC Driving]

Thank you prj. Good to know.

 

[jk981]

I can’t remember if I asked this before, but can someone confirm USB playback (specifically .flac files) is possible with the j1.2 burmester system? I saw a YouTube video for j1.1 saying that there was no USB playback, which would be surprising.

 

[prj]

I can’t remember if I asked this before, but can someone confirm USB playback (specifically .flac files) is possible with the j1.2 burmester system? I saw a YouTube video for j1.1 saying that there was no USB playback, which would be surprising.

I could test it for you, but then I'd have to buy a USB-C to USB-A adapter or a USB-C flash drive specifically for that...

That said, spotify has lossless streaming these days. Though no idea if the app in the car supports that.
When using AA/Carplay then those are usually not lossless by themselves anyway, at least when using wireless.

 

[jk981]

I just have a thumb drive I’ve been using for 10 years with some obscure stuff. I use a lot of streaming, but I often just set the whole USB drive to shuffle and let fate decide.

 

[alex_bell]

I can’t remember if I asked this before, but can someone confirm USB playback (specifically .flac files) is possible with the j1.2 burmester system? I saw a YouTube video for j1.1 saying that there was no USB playback, which would be surprising.

you can use carplay to play anything. Because it uses wifi instead of BT for connectivity - you can play flac. I use Qobuz to play hi-res, but I can't say I hear difference comparing to regular 320kbps mp3 file

 

[prj]

you can use carplay to play anything. Because it uses wifi instead of BT for connectivity - you can play flac. I use Qobuz to play hi-res, but I can't say I hear difference comparing to regular 320kbps mp3 file

Carplay wireless compresses all audio to AAC-LC. It's not lossless!
Wired gets downsampled to 16bit and sent as PCM, which is technically lossless.

 

[alex_bell]

Carplay wireless compresses all audio to AAC-LC. It's not lossless!
Wired gets downsampled to 16bit and sent as PCM, which is technically lossless.

interesting, always thought it was able to play flac

then if no - then usb stick is an option

 

[prj]

interesting, always thought it was able to play flac

then if no - then usb stick is an option

The phone may play FLAC, that FLAC gets losslessly decompressed then recompressed with lossy AAC-LC and sent over wifi. At that point the whole FLAC thing was an exercise in futility.

Wired should be able to pass PCM audio through, so you can try that, although it's a hassle.

 

[jk981]

you can use carplay to play anything. Because it uses wifi instead of BT for connectivity - you can play flac. I use Qobuz to play hi-res, but I can't say I hear difference comparing to regular 320kbps mp3 file

Oops sorry, I’m specifically asking about using a usb-c or usb-a (not sure what ports the car has) flash drive, not CarPlay or anything involving a phone.

Also curious if there are any weird limitations to the system. I just drop all the files in the root directory and let it shuffle. However, in my wife’s Prius, for example, the directory must be broken up into smaller sub-folders for it to read all the files. Does the PCM have any quirks like that?

 

[alex_bell]

Oops sorry, I’m specifically asking about using a usb-c or usb-a (not sure what ports the car has) flash drive, not CarPlay or anything involving a phone.

Also curious if there are any weird limitations to the system. I just drop all the files in the root directory and let it shuffle. However, in my wife’s Prius, for example, the directory must be broken up into smaller sub-folders for it to read all the files. Does the PCM have any quirks like that?

I have usb-c on 2020. Least you can try - just take thumb drive and put few flac records there

 

[jk981]

I have usb-c on 2020. Least you can try - just take thumb drive and put few flac records there

I don’t have a Taycan yet (probably going for a 4 with a MapEV tune later this year or early next.). Just doing some research to figure out the build.

 

[alex_bell]

I don’t have a Taycan yet (probably going for a 4 with a MapEV tune later this year or early next.). Just doing some research to figure out the build.

I will try to a look

i have thumb drive, will drop few flacs to see how it works/sounds

i did this bose -> burmester conversion but turned out I never tested mp3 vs flac on this new setup

 

[prj]

Resurrecting this for another question: does the Burmester system have any sort of time alignment feature through the DSP that focuses the music on the general area of the drivers seat? I can't find a burmester Taycan anywhere locally to listen/fiddle with controls.

Here:

 

[prj]

According to Porsche on 26 March 2025 below —but is this just “marketing” or does DOLBY Atmos increase listening quality? Hope that someone here has experienced the two in a Taycan and can share with us the answer to that question.



We all wish that both Bose and Burmester has improved in 2026+ Taycans.

And this is the extent of the whole Dolby Atmos. There's a single app where you can play 5 test clips.
The only thing that will ever be useful for is if you would play some dolby atmos soundtrack movies, but I don't see why you would watch movies on the tiny screen...

Unlike what they say in the marketing, there is almost no music that uses positional audio - 99.9% of all modern music is dual channel stereo.

So it's just a useless gimmick.

Btw in general the Bose is completely shit compared to Burmester. The Burmester is the only system with acceptable audio quality if you like music. Not only due to the better dynamic range, but also because the Auro 3D upscaler/DSP is very, very good.
It's not perfect by any means - but it's good enough that I don't feel the need to go aftermarket.

My loaner a few days ago had Bose, I played with the settings, and it's just bad. I have an Audi A4 B9 with the "Audi Sound System" and that sounds about the same (bad).

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