Perlisten R212s Subwoofer Review

[shadyJ]

One of the best subwoofers we ever tested was Perlisten’s D215s, their flagship subwoofer, but at $9k, it wasn’t for everyone. However, if you didn’t need quite as much sheer headroom as the D215s provide and aren’t looking to spend $9k on a subwoofer but are still interested in the technologies and design ideas of Perlisten, you could save a significant amount of money by looking at their Reference series products. The Reference series does scale down the extravagant build quality and feature set of the Signature series subs a bit, but the design ideas and promise of tremendous performance remains intact.

The flagship of the Reference series subwoofers is the R212s, a $5k dual 12” subwoofer powered by a 1.3kW amplifier using state-of-the-art signal processing. This is the subwoofer we will be looking at in today’s review. The questions this subwoofer poses are: How much is given up by stepping down from the Signature series? Will you get much of the same performance but at a massive discount? How does the Reference fare against competing subwoofers from other manufacturers? Does the R212s represent the sweet spot of value in Perlisten’s subwoofer line-up? Read our full review to find out the answers to all of these questions and more!

READ: Perlisten R212s Subwoofer Review

 

[ryanosaur]

Intrigued!

 

[ryanosaur]

Pretty d@mned impressive for dual 12" Sub! That design team is really killing it on capabilities.

Thank you @shadyJ !

 

[buckchester]

Nice review. I'm sure it's a lot of work. I appreciate being able to read through detailed reviews like this. Question for you - do you think all the expensive tech in this sub is worth it? It all sounds very cool, but I look at some similar offerings with much more traditional designs from some ID companies, but offer similar performance for less cost. Like one of PSA's subs?

 

[lovinthehd]

Nice sub, but outside my tolerance of cost....I'd rather diy.

 

[MandM]

Nice review. I'm sure it's a lot of work. I appreciate being able to read through detailed reviews like this. Question for you - do you think all the expensive tech in this sub is worth it? It all sounds very cool, but I look at some similar offerings with much more traditional designs from some ID companies, but offer similar performance for less cost. Like one of PSA's subs?

Totally agree....lately I've been having a hard time wrapping my head around the value rating...maybe time to drop it?

 

[ryanosaur]

I think it’s important to keep in mind, as we well know from many previous reviews, that the value rating is not strictly about affordability. Shady has gone over this before.
We also know that Perlisten is not for many of us mere mortals. Maybe they will decide they have their bills paid and release some gear in the category where us 5-figure types could buy something of theirs…

Anyway… since we are on this topic now… everybody drink!

The Official _/Unofficial/_ AH Drinking Game!

I've been joking about this for far, far too long. It started up as an idea in my head after AH was inundated with people buying lower-tier B&W Speakers and coming on the Forum to find out why they sounded like @$$ once they set them up in their home. :) After that, there were... other topics of...

forums.audioholics.com

Thread Specific: ANY REVIEW THREAD
Take a drink for any review met with derision.
Do a Shot PLUS a Drink for any comments questioning the value proposition. ... boilermakers, depth charges and sake bombs all count.
Take 3 shots for any post suggesting that you can DIY a better solution. ...Two to the chest, one to the dome style!

And I do think for discerning folk that can spend 5k on a subwoofer, there is value in this. As a dual 12”, it is small as a sealed box and does look good. Perlisten continues to impress with their specs, too. (Not that GD is a surprise in a sealed box, but the low distortion is a plus, along with its extension for 12” drivers.)

Different strokes for different folks. Where some of us may not mind Duratex or a rattle-can finish, there is no way The Lady would let me put 2 or 3 PSA or JTR cabinets in the Greatroom. I may be able to hide 2-3 of these. (Not that I can afford them!... BUT!...) These do look good.

 

[buckchester]

I think it’s important to keep in mind, as we well know from many previous reviews, that the value rating is not strictly about affordability. Shady has gone over this before.
We also know that Perlisten is not for many of us mere mortals. Maybe they will decide they have their bills paid and release some gear in the category where us 5-figure types could buy something of theirs…

Anyway… since we are on this topic now… everybody drink!

The Official _/Unofficial/_ AH Drinking Game!

I've been joking about this for far, far too long. It started up as an idea in my head after AH was inundated with people buying lower-tier B&W Speakers and coming on the Forum to find out why they sounded like @$$ once they set them up in their home. :) After that, there were... other topics of...

forums.audioholics.com

And I do think for discerning folk that can spend 5k on a subwoofer, there is value in this. As a dual 12”, it is small as a sealed box and does look good. Perlisten continues to impress with their specs, too. (Not that GD is a surprise in a sealed box, but the low distortion is a plus, along with its extension for 12” drivers.)

Different strokes for different folks. Where some of us may not mind Duratex or a rattle-can finish, there is no way The Lady would let me put 2 or 3 PSA or JTR cabinets in the Greatroom. I may be able to hide 2-3 of these. (Not that I can afford them!... BUT!...) These do look good.

Yes, it's small, looks good, and has very interesting sounding tech. But I feel like a PSA sub is only a little less cool, maybe a little bigger, but significantly less money. What did he give it, a value of 4/5? I'm not sure about that one.

 

[lovinthehd]

Way ahead of you @ryanosaur on the drinking game....good for "fire relief"

As to finish/looks of these subs....a big meh as to most WAF acceptance I'd think just on size, the finish doesn't look that great to conquer that aspect.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

View attachment 57739​

One of the best subwoofers we ever tested was Perlisten’s D215s, their flagship subwoofer, but at $9k, it wasn’t for everyone. However, if you didn’t need quite as much sheer headroom as the D215s provide and aren’t looking to spend $9k on a subwoofer but are still interested in the technologies and design ideas of Perlisten, you could save a significant amount of money by looking at their Reference series products. The Reference series does scale down the extravagant build quality and feature set of the Signature series subs a bit, but the design ideas and promise of tremendous performance remains intact.

The flagship of the Reference series subwoofers is the R212s, a $5k dual 12” subwoofer powered by a 1.3kW amplifier using state-of-the-art signal processing. This is the subwoofer we will be looking at in today’s review. The questions this subwoofer poses are: How much is given up by stepping down from the Signature series? Will you get much of the same performance but at a massive discount? How does the Reference fare against competing subwoofers from other manufacturers? Does the R212s represent the sweet spot of value in Perlisten’s subwoofer line-up? Read our full review to find out the answers to all of these questions and more!

READ: Perlisten R212s Subwoofer Review

@shadyJ how does the Perlisten dual 12" sub compare to the RBH dual 12" sub in terms of Output (dB) and Bass Extension (16Hz, 20Hz) ?

 

[everettT]

@shadyJ how does the Perlisten dual 12" sub compare to the RBH dual 12" sub in terms of Output (dB) and Bass Extension (16Hz, 20Hz) ?

And and distortion numbers from 40 to 120hz..

 

[kini]

Nice review. I'm sure it's a lot of work. I appreciate being able to read through detailed reviews like this. Question for you - do you think all the expensive tech in this sub is worth it? It all sounds very cool, but I look at some similar offerings with much more traditional designs from some ID companies, but offer similar performance for less cost. Like one of PSA's subs?

Perlisten and PSA shoppers are two very different categories of shoppers. PSA is largely untested with nothing more than fanboy, anecdotal data. I took a chance with their untested speakers and came away less than impressed.

I guess their subs are probably OK, but they're ugly as all get out and of course untested. Not a problem if you live in the lower 48 and can return them if not satisfied.

 

[shadyJ]

@shadyJ how does the Perlisten dual 12" sub compare to the RBH dual 12" sub in terms of Output (dB) and Bass Extension (16Hz, 20Hz) ?

The RBH dual 12" has quite a bit more deep bass output, not surprising since it is a ported design with more amp power and is also more expensive.

And and distortion numbers from 40 to 120hz..

The RBH sub does permit quite a bit more distortion at maximum drive levels. From 40Hz and above, the Perlisten sub can't be made to produce over 5% THD. In that same range, the RBH sub can touch 20% THD. Interestingly, their long-term max output in that range is almost the same and hovers around 115dB.

 

[shadyJ]

Yes, it's small, looks good, and has very interesting sounding tech. But I feel like a PSA sub is only a little less cool, maybe a little bigger, but significantly less money. What did he give it, a value of 4/5? I'm not sure about that one.

I don't grade value on raw output alone. Of course, you can get more output for the same price elsewhere since this is a high-end product. If you want the most output for your dollar, there is pretty much no competition against the Monoprice 16". But there is more to performance than just CEA-2010 numbers anyway. If you don't think the R212s is a good value, then tell me where you can get something with a similar size, build quality, finish quality, dynamic range, non-linear distortion performance, bass extension, time-domain performance, and technology.

 

[buckchester]

I don't grade value on raw output alone. Of course, you can get more output for the same price elsewhere since this is a high-end product. If you want the most output for your dollar, there is pretty much no competition against the Monoprice 16". But there is more to performance than just CEA-2010 numbers anyway. If you don't think the R212s is a good value, then tell me where you can get something with a similar size, build quality, finish quality, dynamic range, non-linear distortion performance, bass extension, time-domain performance, and technology.

Well, when it comes to value I would put more weight on the sound quality and less on the other aspects than you do.

I think this is a nice looking sub with cool sounding technology, but I'm skeptical how much all of that translates into performance improvements that we can percieve over cheaper, more industrial, and more traditional designs.

 

[buckchester]

Perlisten and PSA shoppers are two very different categories of shoppers. PSA is largely untested with nothing more than fanboy, anecdotal data. I took a chance with their untested speakers and came away less than impressed.

I guess their subs are probably OK, but they're ugly as all get out and of course untested. Not a problem if you live in the lower 48 and can return them if not satisfied.

Well, they aren't the nicest looking, but I wouldn't say they're ugly.

While there is fanboyism with this brand (and others), they do have older models that have been tested on database that did very well. I would imagine their newer models would have even better performance.

 

[kini]

Well, they aren't the nicest looking, but I wouldn't say they're ugly.

While there is fanboyism with this brand (and others), they do have older models that have been tested on database that did very well. I would imagine their newer models would have even better performance.

I'm sure they're fine. Maybe not all what the rabid fans make them out to be though. My experience with their speakers and the owner really soured my opinion of the brand. I will say that the owner did work out an acceptable resolution. I just didn't like being talked down to like I'm an idiot. If you're fine going in knowing that the owner is never wrong about anything and can accept the insults that will come if you find the performance is not what you were expecting, then PSA is great.

 

[TLS Guy]

I'm sure they're fine. Maybe not all what the rabid fans make them out to be though. My experience with their speakers and the owner really soured my opinion of the brand. I will say that the owner did work out an acceptable resolution. I just didn't like being talked down to like I'm an idiot. If you're fine going in knowing that the owner is never wrong about anything and can accept the insults that will come if you find the performance is not what you were expecting, then PSA is great.

I'm not surprised. I went on their site and was not at all impressed. Minimal specs given and no data to back up their claims. I would be really wary buying off an Internet site of that type.

 

[buckchester]

I'm sure they're fine. Maybe not all what the rabid fans make them out to be though. My experience with their speakers and the owner really soured my opinion of the brand. I will say that the owner did work out an acceptable resolution. I just didn't like being talked down to like I'm an idiot. If you're fine going in knowing that the owner is never wrong about anything and can accept the insults that will come if you find the performance is not what you were expecting, then PSA is great.

Ya, he's definitely a strong type A personality, that's for sure.

They used to have data on their older model subs. I wish they would include data for their newer ones too. They've been listed with "coming soon" for years now...

I bought a couple of their subs a few years back and have been very impressed with them. Like I said, some of their older models were tested on databass and did quite well. Maybe James will get a newer one in to test sometime - that would be great.

I've always been skeptical about their speakers. Seems to me speakers are much more difficult to get right than subs. It would be interesting to hear more about your impressions of their speakers.

 

[gene]