Macan EV BOSE - not as good as it was on the ICE Macan

[Station]

After several EV test drives at my Porsche dealer I've used for decades, we (the dealer, my buddy, and I) all agreed that the new BOSE sound system on the Macan EV is nowhere near as good as the BOSE on my 2023 Macan GTS. I placed an order for a 4s Macan EV and was forced to bump to Burmeister.

..we had my GTS sitting next to the demo Macan EV, doors open, going back and forth - and played the same tracks at various volumes (a high fidelity song by Depeche Mode, and then Steely Dan, just to get the best wide fidelity track from different genres going, so we could mess with the sound settings in the EV. Couldn't touch the BOSE in the '23 Macan GTS. This is a bummer because I always found the BOSE to be respectable in the past, and Burmester to be unnecessary.

Anyone else come to this conclusion?

(I also drove a 2nd Macan 4 on a different day and while I didn't dig around in the sound as much, it exhibited the same sonic limitations as the first EV)

 

[PanameraFrank]

To be honest, I think it's in your head. I dont mean that disrespectfully, it's just easy to sit at a dealership and get critical, especially with other people feeding into it. It's the Porsche option effect.

I believe the system in the electric Macan is actually more powerful. It's 710 watts vs 665 in the ICE.

I think once you tweak the settings around it'll be excellent. I found it great on my test drives.

 

[Fun TC Driving]

I saw a post on a review YT video that it takes over 100 hours of use for the Bose to get up to itstandard capabilities. Not sure if that is correct or not…

 

[Station]

To be honest, I think it's in your head. I dont mean that disrespectfully, it's just easy to sit at a dealership and get critical, especially with other people feeding into it. It's the Porsche option effect.

I believe the system in the electric Macan is actually more powerful. It's 710 watts vs 665 in the ICE.

I think once you tweak the settings around it'll be excellent. I found it great on my test drives.

I don't know if you read my entire post but we spent probably half an hour trying to get the EV to even remotely resemble the sound quality of the ice GTS. We went through all available settings. All parties present including my friend who is also my sales guy as well as my buddy who I brought along, agreed. It's not even close. I also saw a reviewer bring this up on YouTube.

It's not "in my head". I would love to not spend an extra $4700 on Burmester. I've owned multiple Porsches with both Bose and Burmester and it can vary depending on cabin size such as 911 versus Cayenne.

I will go as far as to say the BOSE in the EV is inferior to my daughter's 7-year old Q3 with whatever factory system they are putting in that Audi.

 

[PanameraFrank]

It'll certainly sound different. Different model, not broken in.

I found it quite nice. Can't agree at all that it's a bad system. It takes 30 hours+ for audio systems to break in, so it makes sense your ICE would sound better right now as they are very, very similar systems. You've also had a lot more than 30 minutes to get it set up the way you like it and get used to it.

But it sounds like you will always be concerned about it, so speccing Burmeister for peace of mind is probably a good call.

I would highly recommend 20" wheels and insulated glass with Burmeister, or you're going to lose a lot of the improvement to road noise.

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