New buy, no return policy

A $50K speaker is a different ballgame than $5K. That’s "special order" territory, and a small dealer is going to have a hard time eating the loss of a return. I don’t blame him for sticking on that point.

The TMR deal doesn’t look too bad. This model isn’t that old, and what could go wrong other than over-driven drivers (damaged voice coil), which would be immediately apparent on a test listen. TMR would be my route, in your shoes. Only Acora or TMR would attempt to ship these beasts. You won’t find them for sale used often, on shipping logistics alone. 

The SRC-2 is a very nice speaker. That said, think I preferred the smaller SRC-1 based on a listen to both at my dealer’s. It has the silk dome tweeter. Musical as hell! Of course it depends on the room and equipment - the SRC-1 was in a smaller room with lower ranked (but still quite spectacular) gear behind it. 

So, I did go with the pre-owned pair and the amount I saved is staggering.

Congrats, hope you  enjoy:) 
You did the right thing. I like to support good dealers (and have done my part there over the years), but the monetary discrepancy is often too great to justify buying new. And my local dealer just retired - 2 decades of relationship built up there - so it will be almost all used market for me, going forward. 

TMR is nice because they have the resources to ship the bigger stuff safely, for reasonable rates. They also get a lot of good stuff in - I’ve been finding far more "hits" there than on Audiogon, for years. 

Are those speakers worth $48k, anyway ?

Acoras sound really good, and nobody else is making high end speakers in such nice granite / marble cabinets, so they fit a niche in the market. You should give them a listen. Personally, I really liked the slightly more modest SRC-1. Anyways, I think op was wise to avoid paying the $48K (or close to that). 

I’ll really miss my longtime relationship with my now-retired dealer (who also dealt Acoras, incidentally). Don’t think I have the patience to start a new relationship these days, don’t like the online-only "full retail" (or close to it) dealers, and don’t like many of the personalities in this industry. Used markets and TMR will fill my needs now, and I don't feel guilty about that. 

TMR is also an authorized dealer & retailer of many high-end brands. So the lines are kinda blurred anyways. They do a really good job with packing, shipping for reasonable rates, and having extremely detailed pics of used gear. They're not perfect 100% of the time (we're all human and err occasionally), but I've come to really appreciate the service they provide.

They've also become the #2 place I check for newly listed used gear. For large expensive speakers, they really help de-risk the transaction.