Bose Vs Burmester Amp? Looking to upgrade with aftermarket Focal system but...

Hello everyone I'm thinking about upgrading my audio system in my new (to me at least) 2015 911 GTS . I had recently traded in my 2015 Boxster GTS and since I built it on the website at the time, I checked the Burmester box since I love audio. Sure.. the cars sound great but I do listen to music often when I drive. The previous owner of this 911 GTS placed the Bose system in here.. and when you compare the two (at least in these two cars of the same year) the Burmester tramples all over the Bose in every way. Rather than trying to put a Burmester in this car, I was thinking of going Focal aftermarkets from a reputable installer in my area. My question is.. does Porsche use different amps with both systems or is it just the speakers that differ? If they both ran on the same amp/receiver, then I'd just swap out the speakers for better sound. I don't blast it but I want clean, clear vocals and crisp instruments. I have no desire to make my car shake.. just better quality audio. Lastly, does anyone have the specs for the amp that Porsche used in the 2015 cars? Watts per channel, ohms, impedance..etc? Thanks for any helpful info anyone can provide in advance. I love home audio and I can install them with ease but car audio.. I'm completely lost. :hilarious:

I have large Burmester amps and a Burmester preamplifier in my main audio system and they are fantastic. My speakers are equally good, but they are from a different manufacturer. This make the point that ALL components play a role in getting the best audio, and that mix-and-match can be a good idea. Were I in your shoes I'd start with speakers since they are cheaper than amps, and see if they give you the quality you want. To find the best (Focal could be one) you might google something like "best car speakers" and see what pops up.

Thanks for the advice. I like the idea of upgrading the speakers first. My previous Burmester sounded great for a car stereo system that isn't aftermarket and I figured that (IF) the processing was the same, that I'd just add some nice Focals and a decent sub (something small and clean), providing the speakers play nice, spec wise. Again, Thank you for the feedback. Much appreciated.

Just a couple of thoughts. First, are you sure it's worth the investment in better sound? I have no doubt that the Burm is better than the Bose . However, given the cacophony of sound in a Porsche cabin I'm surprised one can hear the difference. For sure in my 981 CS I can not. Second, I'm sure you realize that upgraded sound systems sold as options, i.e. Burn, Bose or whatever, are aquatically tuned to the cabin of that specific vehicle. This is done not just by the type and location of the speakers but by equalization added to the amps that drive those speakers. After market systems, no matter the quality, are not specifically tuned for the cabin of your vehicle. Not that you can't get someone to do that using a spectrum analyzer located where the drivers head would be, but it can cost $$$. Anyway, Good Luck!

That's a good point. I was concerned with the aftermarket calibration of the new speakers as well. In both my GTS cars, I turn off the sport exhaust and I can hear the stereo in great detail (at least on the Burm) but the Bose ... well.. that's a different story. Between the airflow through the cabin and even minor road noise.. the Bose just doesn't cut it for me. Great feedback guys. Thanks!

The PCM radio talks to the Bose or Burmester amp via a fiber optic MOST connection. There are several things to take into consideration. First the Burmester Amp has two extra speakers (tweeters in the rear) that are not wired to the Bose Amp . The PCM radio is programmed with a code to be able to talk to the Burmester amp. If the Burmester amp does work, some of the Burmester -specific settings will be missing. To get that, the enaabling code has to be programmed into the radio and then the Burmester -specific software has to be uploaded into the PCM . Porsche doesn't let this happen. You buy the car with Burmester . There is no 100 percent upgrade option. Next Challenge: the Bose speakers have different shaped connectors. Porsche uses different connector designs for ASK, Bose and Burmester speakers to prevent easy interchangabiity. The Bose center dash speaker is double the impeadance of the Burmester . You can fit the Burmester ribbon tweeters onto the Bose connector, but you have to modify the air vents. Somewhere on this site I documented that modification. I managed to get all the empty connector shells for the other speakers, but the door mid-range and woofer on the Bose , have wider pins and so the pins have to be changed for a clean install. Option I682 left and right door wiring harness is $1066 ($533 per side). I wound up cutting the Bose connectors off the door wiring harness and soldered the wires directly to the Burmester speakers. The Burmester subwoofer has a different connector, but the Burmester sub also has two standard blades as well as the Porsche Burmester wiring connector. The Bose subwoofer amp is rated at half the power of the Burmester subwoofer amp, but it plays well without clipping at moderate volume. Even though I have a used Burmester Amp, I am running the Bose Amp with all Burmester speakers. It is an upgrade, especially the ribbon tweeters. V6

That is an incredible wealth of knowledge V6. I figured it was going to be a bit simpler but at least I have enough information to make my next moves. Thanks for taking the time to help out and thanks once again to everyone else who made suggestions and left feedback. Much appreciated. :cheers:

A couple of other observations: ASK speakers are junk paper cones and the cones may degrade if the speakers, door speakers in particular, get wet. They also have the smallest magnets of the ASK, Bose , and Burmester mid-range and dash center speakers. The Bose has a slightly better cone material and the Burmester mid-range have a woven cone material, likely aramid fiber. The Burmester speakers have slightly larger magnets than the Bose and a lot bigger than the speakers used by the ASK system . Door woofers are different, too. Again the Burmester woofer is the best. It has a full cone, whereas the Bose is an inverted six inch speaker in a 8 inch housing. That is why it is weak compared to the Burmester . The base ASK woofer is normal design, and closer to the 8 inch housing than the Bose , but incredibly boomy and has a small magnet. Due to the inverted design of the Bose door woofer (all you see on the back side is the spyder , magnet is internal) I cannot know for sure the magnet size of the Bose , but it should be small to fit in the exposed front nose. All the factory speakers and amplifiers are made by ASK and are marked as such. You have to go by the part numbers and can see the difference in quality between devices. Note that the dash tweeters on the base and Bose systems run parallel to the door mid-range speakers and have a visible capacitor on the back side of the tweeters. The Burmester dash tweeters have seperate wiring back to the amplifier and it is expected the amp has some sort of internal filtering, whether capacitive or digitally high pass, I don't know. There has been controversy on other sites if the Burmester ribbon tweeter needs a capacitor to protect it. Many have run it straight, including myself without adding a capacitor in line with the ribbon tweeter with no ill effects. On a Cayman , the rear Burmester mid-range speakers are identical to the door speakers, but the use a round tweeter that does not have an exposed capacitor and are seperately wired back to the amp, like the dash ribbon tweeters. It would be nice if someone created short adapter cables for the door speakers to make the conversion job easier. V6

I figured this would be a hassle to one degree or another but I wasn't expecting it to be that in involved. Since this post...I've stumbled upon a 2016 GT3RS with low miles and I'm working on possibly locking that deal up. If that happens, then I'm trading my GTS in the deal. If I keep my GTS , I'm going to go forward with the project of replacing the Bose and If I get the GT3RS, I may have to abandon the idea of having quality (musical) audio again.

Does anyone know where is the Burmester subwoofer located in a 981 Cayman GTS ? I didn’t want to start a new thread so added to this one.

On a left hand drive car, it is up in the middle of the left-side of dash, held by three bolts. The dash creates a resonance tube that enhances the bass output. On a US car, you get to it by removing the knee bar and heater hoses and it is a reach. V6

I have a 2015 CGTS with the Bose . I'm an audiophile, audio engineer, own and operate a multi-room recording / production facility. While I'm not at all a fan of anything BOSE , my CGTS sounds pretty okay with all the processing turned off and both bass and treble backed off two notches. Good enough when I want to listen to something other than that glorious, sonorous flat-6!! My point and 2 cents? Mess with the BOSE settings before kicking it to the curb.