Best Floorstanding Speakers Buyers Guide 2023 !

Nobody in their right mind should pay $37k for a pair of speakers made of marble it is an absolute scam. Do you know how bad marble rings? 

https://parttimeaudiophile.com/2022/12/02/the-best-floorstanding-speakers-buyers-guide-2023/

 Look at all these other speakers that did not get an Summit AWARD ! 😈

The Acora Acoustics SRC-2 speakers are made from granite, not marble. On the Mohs hardness scale, marble is on the soft side at 3, granite is between 6-7. This is on a scale of 1 to 10. Kenjit, is anything you ever say accurate or even real?

Do you know how bad marble rings? 

Yes, quartz countertops are more resistant to staining.

All the best,
Nonoise

OMG ! ALL New Acora QRC-1 Speakers REVIEW.. 😎

https://www.acoraacoustics.com/reviews.html

Acora Acoustics will be at Axpona 2023 Show

https://axpona.com/floorplan-hotel-convention-center/

More about these cheaper Acora QRC-1 Quartz Speakers 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMVtuW-PZ3w

The Acora cabinets are made from gabbro, not granite. Granite has quartz grains in it. Gabbro does not, and it is the coarse grained equivalent of basalt, where granite is the coarse grained equivalent of rhyolite. Granite has about 70% SiO2 in it by weight, whereas gabbro has about 50% SiO2 by weight. It is also substantially denser than granite, and has a higher sonic velocity. Gabbro is dark colored, and granite is light colored and typically has mica (biotite or Muscovite) in it. I would expect the denser gabbro to make a better sounding cabinet.

 I’m a Berkeley Geology PhD, and a former research scientist, Professor, and Geology Department Chair who has worked on a variety of basalts and gabbros  in my career.

 Please forgive the beating of my chest to establish credibility, but I do like the sound of the Acoras. 

Happy to see my Sasha DAWs are on the list. I saw and heard the Acora speakers last year at Axpona. They sound great. I can still recall their amazing bass inside that giant sized show room. The Acoras were one of my top two favorite speakers at the show last year. The other speaker was a three way horn type driven by an SET amp and a Lampizator DAC. Couldn’t pull myself away.

First glance at the Acora speakers in this large room at Axpona my thought was this room will be uninteresting. These diminutive speakers looked swallowed up by the room. Then the music started and I was captivated. They energized that large room with ease. Looking at their size and hearing the music they were making was baffling. They defied my ingrained expectations based on decades of experiences.

Btw- Acora’s website says the cabinets are made from granite. Maybe they say granite because it is a more commonly recognized word.

"Buyers Guide"?

They could have just printed a sign: "Exit" so 99% of buyers that by accident or misguided ventured 'in' there can get the hell out quickly.

Before they collapse in a laughing attack from seeing people actually spending such nutty amounts on equipment (a whole INDUSTRY is milking those fools). 

No Rockport speakers in this buyers guide?! Blasphemous ! 

"The Acora cabinets are made from gabbro, not granite."

... According to the Acora Acoustics website, the SRC-2 loudspeakers are made from granite.

That’s “granite “ from the stone business as in countertops. In a scientific classification, the cabinets are not granite per se. Lots of stuff gets called “granite “ that isn’t.

The stonework is Impeccable. But the name matters in terms of understanding acoustic proportions as the materials are different.

I heard the Acora speakers at the Pacific Audio Fest last summer and they sounded very good. They were in a large room which made them look small but they produced some of the best sound at the show.

I've been to three audio shows in the last several years and I've concluded that I don't care what speakers are made of. I also don't care if they use 4th order crossovers or if they deposit diamond dust on their tweeters in a cyclotron particle accelerator. I've heard exotic speakers that sound great and I've heard conventional speakers that sound great. I've also concluded that speaker prices do not correlate well to their sound quality. I could easily live with the Acoras based on what I heard but there are a lot of other speakers these days that sound fantastic - many for far less money than the Acoras.

@ronboco +1  Any list like this is always going to miss a few outstanding candidates but leaving out any Rockport speakers gives this exercise a a pretty big credibility problem. The other glaring omission is the MBL 101 E Mk. II.

Before they collapse in a laughing attack from seeing people actually spending such nutty amounts on equipment (a whole INDUSTRY is milking those fools). 
 

@kraftwerkturbo 

What speakers should we be buying?

How should we go about researching buying speakers?

Who exactly are you calling ”fools”?

I heard various Acora speakers at the last Capital Audiofest (Washington DC area).  While not the greatest things I've ever heard, they were quite good, particularly because they were not crazy expensive.

that list is only what Part Time Audiophile tested.  It really means nothing, just a couple of guys opinions. 

So happy to have discovered and purchased my Revel Salon 2 speakers several years ago. The Salon 2 speakers perform at such a high level of proficiency, from top to bottom, in all aspects of the musical spectrum, and the reproduction of the musical event, I just don’t have to want for anything more (my wallet thanks me). With my Revel Salon 2 speakers, in my audiophile journey, I consider myself one of the fortunate ones who searched and found his little piece of High End Audio heaven.  Now, I no longer have to keep searching. I no longer have to keep looking over my shoulders trying to figure out what my next pair of speakers will be because I’m never satisfied with the ones I already have. Finally, after years and years of searching and experimenting with speakers, I’m off the speaker "revolving door."  All I can tell you is that the Revel Salon 2 speakers are absolutely phenomenal, and that I will probably take them to the grave with me.

I have a (useless) geology degree and can confirm that the stone used in these Acora speakers is closer to Gabbro than Granite. Granite is typically pink-ish (potassium feldspar minerals) with tranparent bits (quartz) and some white/blackish bits (plagioclase, muscovite, biotite...). The naming of a stone has a lot to do with the mineral composition. Granite is an umbrella term which groups different stones which vary in composition. Gabbro is a greyish rock with a similar texture to granite. The mineral composition is different in gabbro. So non-geologists just group rocks by texture, neglecting the composition. 

The "It's not granite, it's gabbro" sentence is something you hear a lot during the 2nd year of the undergrad degree. It gives you the illusion that you're smarter than the average jock. I have yet to find a practical use for this knowledge. 

The SRC-2 look like tombstones. Imagine these next to a bouquet of flowers. Gruesome...

@kokakolia geology is like meteorology except 1 minute = 10,000 years! :)

It's so not useless

@kraftwerkturbo I do agree that this list is for the super rich.

btw the link is broken

https://parttimeaudiophile.com/2022/12/02/the-best-floorstanding-speakers-buyers-guide-2023/

Aerial speakers are also missing.

@grislybutter At my count, there are 3 'best' floorstanding speakers under $5k on that list. To earn ANY credibility, I would suggest that such a list should be made up of speakers 80% be under $5k, 15% under $10k, 4% under $50k, 1% over $50k. 

@kraftwerkturbo 

I don't think parttimeaudiophile is all that concerned with credibility. But it's pretentious to call it buyer's guide. None of the big review sites have ever done anything comprehensive that would entitle them to call their lists "buyer's guide". (Stereophile, maybe?)

They should call it "list of [X] we like"

and you are right, it's always tilted to the pricy categories. I guess
"audiophile" to people with access to the most expensive models means that: speakers for a price of a used or new car.

I'll take my beloved Revel Salon 2 speakers over the 37K Acora's any day!!!

I buy what pleases me not audio rag reviewers. I'll admit a sense of pride when I see my speakers in the top 25, but tbh I've owned at least 5 of the 25 from 1 list and they're all gone replaced by speakers that sounded better in my room with my music. Do I miss the affirmation of a reviewer putting my kit on a list...While I always have the itch to try the next new thing it doesn't have to make the class A or top 25, although the hype does make it easier to find these new products.

Hard to take that list seriously.