Is the Taycan quieter than the Boxster, for road noise especially?

[diononiz]

Same. And I read that the Cayman is even louder than the Boxster, despite lacking the soft top, but for having "more of the car" in the cabin with you.

You will love the quiet cabin in the Taycan. I am an audio nerd (audiophile) too and I never really considered upgrading the stereo (except for Bose as I heard the standard stereo is awful) but in the Taycan, you could easily hear the benefits. I kind of wish I had the Burmeister.......

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[magnitude]

Bose is the BEST bose Porsche has ever done in one of their vehicles - they hit it out of the park for the Taycan custom work they did -

I'd sample a bose system in a Taycan with some of your favorite tracks before mandating a Burnmeister

I don't know. I got so, so burned by the terrible BOSE in my 981S, that I don't think I want to gamble again and think "what if" for the lifetime of my car (I tend to keep them very long). I did hear that starting with the 718 the BOSE was "fixed" to not be as atrocious, but listening to music while on the commute is one of my favorite things, so I might just be in the target audience...

 

[daveo4EV]

I understand - I'd suggest trying it with some of your music before ruling it out - I know Bose has a bad rep - but even some bose haters say the Taycan one isn't that bad...

 

[daveo4EV]

https://totallyev.net/porsche-taycan-bose-audio-review-better-than-burmester/

this review thinks both the Bose & the Burmeister fall short - so maybe not spend the extra cash for the burmeister

but you'll like this quote:

On a far more positive note, the Taycan’s cabin is extremely well insulated. Tyre and wind noise were kept down to a minimum, making the vehicle one of the quietest cabins we’ve sat in. Using a sound meter we recorded, 33-34 dBA at a standstill; 48-51 dBA, while driving at 20-30mph; 53-56 dBA, while driving at 40mph; and 68-71 dBA when at 70mph. Note, our tested model didn’t have the £947 ‘acoustically insulated laminated glass’ option fitted, so one can expect even better results.

 

[dtich]

https://totallyev.net/porsche-taycan-bose-audio-review-better-than-burmester/

not sure i'd go with this guy's opinion on much of anything. but. ymmv.

try to listen for yourself where possible is always the answer. don't trust someone else's ears and opinions, most especially an unknown somebody's...

also, i really wish they would open up a more granular eq section. having only 'bass', 'treble' and 'surround' is a truly lame excuse for a tone section on a system of this level. they should, in fact, allow us to do our own tuning, make our own eq map of at least 20 center freqs. it kind of says to me that bose and burmester (that is the spelling btw) are supplying amps and transducers (speakers) and the rest of the system is built into PCM. lord i hope that's not true, but.... seems like it might be.

in any case, i learned long ago that the ONLY way to get a truly terrific car system is to design it and install it yourself. it's surprising less expensive than you may imagine and if you have the tech chops you can do lightyears better than the manufacturers seem to. leave the cabin noise damping to them, they should leave the final tweaks to us. my 2¢.

 

[magnitude]

this review thinks both the Bose & the Burmeister fall short - so maybe not spend the extra cash for the burmeister

You almost had me there, until I read this in the review:

Both male and female vocals aren’t brought to the foreground and given the inability to independently EQ the mids, it leaves much to be desired. We found the Burmester system also lacked finesse across the mid-range tones, though, was a bit more competent than the more affordable Bose system.

I listen to a lot of very vocal heavy music, and it's noticeable for everyone (so without getting into any "audiophile voodoo") that if the mids are underemphasized, voices will appear quieter and drowned out by the rest of the music.

That was the main issue why I regretted the BOSE in my Boxster (and yes, I'm also baffled while there's still not just a multiband EQ, as that would almost certainly solve this problem entirely)...

You're right though that I should give both a listen, though.

 

[daveo4EV]

You almost had me there, until I read this in the review:



I listen to a lot of very vocal heavy music, and it's noticeable for everyone (so without getting into any "audiophile voodoo") that if the mids are underemphasized, voices will appear quieter and drowned out by the rest of the music.

That was the main issue why I regretted the BOSE in my Boxster (and yes, I'm also baffled while there's still not just a multiband EQ, as that would almost certainly solve this problem entirely)...

You're right though that I should give both a listen, though.

but the guys seems to say the burmester doesn't do much (or any) better

but yeah - given them both a listen.

 

[magnitude]

also, i really wish they would open up a more granular eq section. having only 'bass', 'treble' and 'surround' is a truly lame excuse for a tone section on a system of this level. they should, in fact, allow us to do our own tuning, make our own eq map of at least 20 center freqs. it kind of says to me that bose and burmester (that is the spelling btw) are supplying amps and transducers (speakers) and the rest of the system is built into PCM. lord i hope that's not true, but.... seems like it might be.

Yes, it's so baffling, isn't it? Thousands of dollars for no doubt competent speaker and amplifier systems... and then the filter options are just bass and treble shelf filters.

I actually know how that stuff works from an electrical engineering perspective, I know the exact math behind FIR filters for example, and it's far from rocket science to add some capable DSP into the already digital audio path there...

Just being able to boost those mids so that you can actually hear the voices in the music would probably make the BOSE entirely palpable to me.

Alas, in my Boxster at least, I was only able to "make the bass less terribly boomy" with the Bass control, and "make things more shrill" by messing with the Treble control. Why...

 

[daveo4EV]

You almost had me there, until I read this in the review:



I listen to a lot of very vocal heavy music, and it's noticeable for everyone (so without getting into any "audiophile voodoo") that if the mids are underemphasized, voices will appear quieter and drowned out by the rest of the music.

That was the main issue why I regretted the BOSE in my Boxster (and yes, I'm also baffled while there's still not just a multiband EQ, as that would almost certainly solve this problem entirely)...

You're right though that I should give both a listen, though.

well any problems you have with any audio system won't be due to vehicle noise w/Taycan - it will be something entirely different.

 

[dtich]

Alas, in my Boxster at least, I was only able to "make the bass less terribly boomy" with the Bass control, and "make things more shrill" by messing with the Treble control. Why...

My guess at why is that those two shelf eqs are built-in to the DAC chips themselves, and require no further coding from P or anyone else to use.

 

[or1]

Just a thought about the laminated glass: I am not sure it has as much effect as often ascribed to it. Noise that is in the air outside the car will be dampened by it, yes. But it does not make any difference to noise coming through the body from wheels or whatever. I had test drives with both variants, felt not a lot of difference for road noise (there is some) and did not spec it.

Ideally, you should try both variants before making your own decision. That is of course good advice in general, whether it is trim level or Burmester/Bose.

 

[magnitude]

My guess at why is that those two shelf eqs are built-in to the DAC chips themselves, and require no further coding from P or anyone else to use.

That's a good guess, yeah. However, there seem to be at least two bits of further communication with the actual (MOST fiber optic attached) amplifier, as at least with the BOSE you can toggle "Linear" (which, if it really does what it says on the tin, should actually modify the frequency response) and "Surround" from the PCM.

Whether that's over MOST or the CAN bus I don't know, but either way, I wish they had put in some more engineering to make those two bits a few more bits in order to control some multiband EQ from the PCM on the Burmester at least. That R&D should be covered by the many thousand dollars of difference the Burmester makes...

 

[magnitude]

Just a thought about the laminated glass: I am not sure it has as much effect as often ascribed to it. Noise that is in the air outside the car will be dampened by it, yes. But it does not make any difference to noise coming through the body from wheels or whatever. I had test drives with both variants, felt not a lot of difference for road noise (there is some) and did not spec it.

That makes total sense. However, where I live in North California, there are days with some pretty high winds, so I don't want to chance it.

Plus, it seems to be far from an unpopular option, just like the Adaptive Cruise Control on my "Must Have" list. The Burmester on the other hand...

 

[Vercingetorix]

 

[magnitude]

My guess at why is that those two shelf eqs are built-in to the DAC chips themselves

Actually, now that I think about it, that can't really be it, given that PCM and the BOSE or Burmester amplifier are coupled over MOST, which is digital fiberoptics? So the DAC has to be the in the amplifier itself...

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