Various sensors, sensor controllers, and sensor control methods are provided with model-based sideband balancing. In one illustrative embodiment, a controller for a piezoelectric transducer includes a transmitter, a receiver, and a processing circuit coupled to the transmitter and receiver. The processing circuit performs calibration and echo detection, the calibration including: sensing the piezoelectric transducer's phase response as a function of frequency; deriving equivalent circuit parameters for the piezoelectric transducer from the phase response; and determining a sideband imbalance based on one or more of the equivalent circuit parameters. Once the sideband imbalance is identified, the processing circuit may perform echo-detection processing that accounts for the sideband imbalance.