I don't have a workshop or particularly good woodworking skills, but I'm fortunate to have a friend who does. He was kind enough to build a pair of LGK 2.0 speakers for my new office setup, which also consists of a Topping E50 DAC, L50 headphone amp, and PA5 speaker amp.
Most of the time the speakers are between two and three feet from my ears, so rather nearfield. I finally got around to doing some measurements today. Here's the frequency response from the listening position...admittedly, there's a desk and 27 inch 4k display between the speakers and a wall less than a foot behind the mic (and my head), but the room's primary function is my home office, not dedicated 2-channel listening.
Still, left and right channels are matched pretty well. Probably the difference above 13 kHz is because I did not remove my Zoom microphone boom...was likely causing diffraction affecting the left channel. Otherwise, they are mostly within a few dB of each other.
Here's the step response:
That's pretty much textbook...about as good as I generally hope to achieve AFTER applying room correction in other systems, yet this is with no correction at all. There are some phase issues from 14 to 19 ms, but otherwise, these things match very well in the time domain...and those issues are likely due to uneven reflections off of my desk.
Because people complain about output, I ran a compression series, increasing the sweep level by 2 dB until distortion was excessive and/or I saw signs of the traces converging:
As you can see, there are virtually no visible signs of compression above 90 Hz. So, besides low bass, the LGK 2.0 are not dynamically challenged in the slightest at normal desktop playback levels (below 90 dB).
I watched Demolition Man (an old action flick with Sly Stallone) using the LGK 2.0's and the dynamics during the action scenes were punishing. I had to turn the levels down a couple of times, not because the speakers were complaining...but for the sake of my hearing! Certainly, a high-pass filter and a sub or two would have taken the experience up several notches, but it was quite enjoyable. Rendering of the dialog was about the best I've heard anywhere.
Do good powered monitors offer better value for money? Possibly, but it depends on your application and priorities. All powered monitors I've tried so far produce hiss that's clearly audible from 3 ft away. This setup is dead silent. Many multi-way systems have audible coherence or phase issues because there is a crossover in the middle of the vocal region. Not so here. I can always add subs to improve low-end extension. Plus, these are beautiful (unlike most powered monitors) thanks to my good friend, Tom, and his excellent veneer work.
The LGK 2.0 are not for everyone, but I could not be more pleased.
