I purchased the LGK 2.0 kit with flatpack months before Amir reviewed these speakers. A kind (and talented) friend offered to complete the build for me, including finishing the cabinets in a natural walnut veneer. Here's a photo of the cabinets just after the second coat of polyurethane:
I will use these as nearfield monitors for my work setup. I purchased
IsoAcoustics ISO-130 stands to get them to the correct height and point the drivers at my ears. The stands are great for this application because they have a couple of different height options and five different tilt angles to choose from:
I've positioned them in the nearfield...I can easily touch each cabinet with the tips of my fingers. Speakers are 38 - 40% of the way into my 11 ft 7 in x 11 ft 11 in room. My head is less than 2 ft from the wall behind me, which does a nice job of reinforcing the lows. I'm using the Topping E50 + L50 + PA5 "stack." Headphones are the HiFiMan
HE400se. It's nice to have independent volume controls for headphones and speakers.
I've hung a green screen on the wall behind me, which works well for adding virtual backgrounds on Zoom calls.
I realize that the value proposition of the LGK 2.0 relative to alternatives is head-scratching, especially if one opts for the $1,038 finished version instead of the (at the time of purchase) $413 kit option that I selected. But using speakers that a dear friend put a lot of time into building for me is meaningful beyond their cost and relative value.
I've found the sound quality to be more than enjoyable...certainly a dramatic upgrade from the $350 IK Multimedia
iLoud Micro Monitors they replaced. Soundstage depth would be better if I didn't have that 27-inch 4k display sitting between them, but I need that for work, so it must stay. Vocal clarity is delightful. Dynamics are surprisingly good for a 3-inch wideband driver.
For my average playback levels of ~75 dB (C-weighted, slow integration), I'm unable to detect any hints of distortion or buzzing. The drivers are nowhere near the 1 mm excursion limit for the music I typically play. They may struggle with EDM or hip-hop as there's little output below 100 Hz. Not sure, but for my intended purpose, they are consistently putting a big smile on my face. They look beautiful too!
At some point, I may add a small subwoofer, but I could live with the sound I've been getting from these for a long time without one.
I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with Amir's review or measurements. The numbers don't lie. I was a bit worried about how these would actually sound when I read what he had to say, but now that I have them (just arrived last week), I have no regrets. I'm also not suggesting that everyone should rush out and buy these, but if your application is similar to mine, I would not completely rule them out based on Amir's review.