Acora Acoustics has only been on the hi-fi scene for one year, and in that time they’ve thrilled and delighted myself and others in the hi-fi press corps. Their use of high polish granite stone as enclosure materials has drawn them much attention, mostly good, and maybe some bad. Who knows for sure about the bad, as the sound from the Acora Acoustic loudspeakers definitely borders on surreal in how perfect it can be. I would argue that most people when confronted by the sonics of the Acora loudspeakers quickly forget about the weight of granite cabinets and thus start thinking about grabbing their checkbook.
Acora Acoustics was showing in two standard suites at the Florida Audio Expo, each room feature VAC (Valve Amplification Company) electronics, Esoteric digital sources, and Transrotor turntable systems. The biggest difference between the rooms lie in the loudspeakers and amplifiers chosen to power them.
System one centered around a pair of Acora Acoustics SRC-1 ($28,000 pr USD) tower loudspeakers, each being a two-way floor-stander, in a true bass-reflex enclosure, that utilizes a 7-inch sandwich paper cone mid-bass driver, a 1-inch soft dome tweeter, and a 3cm-thick high polished black granite time-aligned enclosure that weighs in at a whopping 246lbs per side. The pair presenting an 8-ohm load to the amplifier, requires as little as 10-watts up to 250-watts of amplifier power, with a sensitivity of 90.5dB 1w/1m, over a frequency range of 29Hz to 30kHz, and standing 43-inches tall.
System two centered around the Acora Acoustics SRB ($15,000 pr USD) bookshelf loudspeakers and stands, each speaker being a two-way stand-mounter, in a true bass-reflex enclosure, that utilizes a 5.5-inch sandwich paper cone mid-bass driver, a 1-inch beryllium dome tweeter, and 2cm-thick high polish black granite time-aligned enclosure that weighs in at a still hefty 58lbs each. The pair presenting an 8-ohm load to the amplifiers, requires as little as 10-watts up to 150-watts of amplifier power, with a sensitivity of 86.5dB 1w/1m, over a frequency range of 43Hz to 35kHz, and standing 13-inches tall, or 40-inches with the recommended SRS matching granite speaker stands which stand 27-inch on their own and weight 63lbs each.
Sonically I can’t rave enough about what I hear in these loudspeakers from Acora Acoustics. Every show I’ve been lucky enough to draw their coverage assignment has blessed me with something new to add to my collection of evidence that supports the case I want to make for their sound. It’s as perfect as a loudspeaker can be. Sure there might be some personal tastes that other listeners enjoy like cabinet resonances, different styles of enclosures or room loading. Maybe even some types of distortion or tuning that you enjoy or something that particularly aims to be less than or different from perfect. But if perfect is your thing, you absolutely owe it to yourself to consider the Acora Acoustics line of loudspeakers.
Remarkable for the SRB (stand-mount monitor) room is how particularly well the bass from the monitors perfectly fit the room. It wasn’t underwhelming in the least, in fact it was a better match than many larger speaker systems found elsewhere at the show.
During our early morning listening session with Valerio Cora (founder of Acora Acoustics) he ushered in our first song of the day, a track from Led Zeppelin’s fourth untitled album, called Stairway To Heaven — if you are unfamiliar with the band or song, do search it out.
Knowing the song as I do, I don’t often consider it for ideal listening test material, but what the song offers up in soul and emotion from all its players is ideal for finding escape in the music. The Acora loudspeakers brought us closer to the song than ever before. Exposing fun little nuances of the recording that I nor fellow writer and more importantly mastering engineer Dave McNair had never noticed before. But aside from all the detail and information, the loudspeakers from Acora deliver on the promise of providing emotional connection to the music.
by Eric Franklin Shook
System One
Acoura Acoustics SRC-1 Towers – $28,000 pr USD
VAC Master Preamplifier with phono – $40,000 USD
VAC Statement 450iQ Monoblocks – $126,000 pr USD
Esoteric Grandioso K1 CD/SACD Player – $31,000 USD
Esoteric N-03T Streamer Renderer – $11,000 USD
Transrotor Massimo Turntable w/SME 5009 tonearm – $15,000 USD
Triangle Art Apollo Cartridge – $8,000 USD
System Two
Acora Acoustics SRB Monitors – $15,000 pr USD
VAC Sigma 170iQ Integrated Amplifier with phono – $11,500 USD
Esoteric K-01Xs CD/SACD Player – $22,000 USD
Esoteric N-05 Streamer Renderer DAC – $7,500 USD
Transrotor Fat Bob S Turntable w/SME 5009 tonearm – $11,000 USD
Airtight PC-7 Cartridge – $2,500 USD
