MartinLogan Perfect Bass Kit (PBK) Subwoofer Calibration System Review

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admin

Audioholics Robot
Staff member
There are three general methods used, in this order, to achieve improved bass response in a room: proper subwoofer placement, passive room treatments, and active room correction. MartinLogan's Perfect Bass Kit, or PBK, tackles the last option, active room correction. While nearly every new AV receiver and processor comes with some sort of automatic room correction system, the quality of said systems is usually severely lacking. For only $100, MartinLogan's PBK offers an extremely affordable method of achieving high quality active room correction. That's the idea anyway. Keep reading to see how, and how well, the system works.

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Read our MartinLogan Perfect Bass Kit (PBK) Subwoofer Calibration System Review
 
sleepysurf

sleepysurf

Junior Audioholic
Great review, and PERFECT timing, as I have a ML BalancedForce 210 sub (with PBK) on order! Glad to hear it works reasonably well, but I hope they'll address the "quirks." I also have the XTZ Room Analyzer Pro kit, which I'll use for additional "dialing in", particularly for two channel playback. In Home Theater mode, I'll let Audyssey MultEQ do it's thing.

FYI, your measurement images are not currently visible (tried IE and Chrome).
 
Cliff_is

Cliff_is

Audioholics Content Manager
Great review, and PERFECT timing, as I have a ML BalancedForce 210 sub (with PBK) on order! Glad to hear it works reasonably well, but I hope they'll address the "quirks." I also have the XTZ Room Analyzer Pro kit, which I'll use for additional "dialing in", particularly for two channel playback. In Home Theater mode, I'll let Audyssey MultEQ do it's thing.

FYI, your measurement images are not currently visible (tried IE and Chrome).
Yeah, we are having issues with this review. For some reason the public site isn't updating properly, it's showing the very first draft that we upload (working title, no images, text not formatted properly).

Funny that you mention XTZ, we've got a review of that coming out in a week or so. I'm just finishing up some edits today.
 
Cliff_is

Cliff_is

Audioholics Content Manager
Yeah, we are having issues with this review. For some reason the public site isn't updating properly, it's showing the very first draft that we upload (working title, no images, text not formatted properly).

Funny that you mention XTZ, we've got a review of that coming out in a week or so. I'm just finishing up some edits today.
Formatting is fixed!
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
Wait, isn't that what Paradigm called theirs? Same thing?
 
H

Hocky

Full Audioholic
Wait, isn't that what Paradigm called theirs? Same thing?
Paradigm owns ML now... so probably. Ever notice that the new Paradigm subs are new iterations of the old ML subs?
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
Paradigm owns ML now... so probably. Ever notice that the new Paradigm subs are new iterations of the old ML subs?
How long ago did that happen? Had to have been a while because Paradigm released that product around 2 years ago.
 
sleepysurf

sleepysurf

Junior Audioholic
Paradigm, ML, and Anthem are all owned by Shoreview Industries, and now share a common factory in Mississauga, Ontario (though some products are now manufactured in China). ML design engineers and Tech Support are still located in Lawrence, KS.
 
Cliff_is

Cliff_is

Audioholics Content Manager
gene

gene

Audioholics Master Chief
Administrator
Paradigm & MartinLogan Clarification

<!--[if gte mso 9]><![endif]--> I saw a few people in this thread mistakenly claiming Paradigm owns MartinLogan. This is NOT true. MartinLogan and Paradigm are sister companies owned by a third party. I hope this clarify things a bit.
 
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H

Hocky

Full Audioholic
I saw a few people in this thread mistakenly claiming Paradigm owns MartinLogan. This is NOT true. MartinLogan and Paradigm are sister companies owned by a third party. I hope this clarify things a bit.
Semantics. lol
 
Cliff_is

Cliff_is

Audioholics Content Manager
You should do more of the factory tours :p
I agree! The only other company around here that I am aware of is Induction Dynamics. They are about 30 minutes from my house, ML is about 5. I'll be moving to North Dakota in a few months, which will put me far away from basically everything A/V. I think the closest would be Magnepan, which is about 450 miles away in a suburb of St. Paul, MN.
 
haraldo

haraldo

Audioholic Spartan
I agree! The only other company around here that I am aware of is Induction Dynamics. They are about 30 minutes from my house, ML is about 5. I'll be moving to North Dakota in a few months, which will put me far away from basically everything A/V. I think the closest would be Magnepan, which is about 450 miles away in a suburb of St. Paul, MN.
If you have people in L.A. / CA, I would love to see Von Schweikert and Vandersteen tours :p
 
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