Diora Acoustics Chors 5 Review: Speakers That Break the Rules

Audiophiles often prefer large, three-way floor-standing speakers with bass reflexA speaker enclosure with a tuned port or slot that allows the rear wave to reinforce bass output, extending low-frequency response. ports that enhance bass output. This setup has become the industry standard. However, there are various alternatives to consider. The Diora Acoustics Chors 5 moves away from traditional designs with its innovative approach to cabinet type, driver material, and technology.

Build Quality and Design

Those speakers are rather on the smaller side for floor-standing. They aren’t particularly tall, deep, or wide, so positioning in a room is going to be made significantly easier. Technically it is just a rectangle with sliced-off corners to make it look more fun, but in reality, it is so much more.

The design choices made by Diora Acoustics contribute to a very clean and simple look. My unit has a beautiful gloss white finish, but there are other options available as well. You can even purchase additional front plates in different colors to change things up a bit.

The drivers are always white for a specific reason that I’ll explain shortly. They technically have exposed screws, but they’re color-matched to the black ring surrounding them, so it doesn’t look any worse because of that.

The included fabric grills feel super heavy and premium. They are black, magnetically attached, and have an angled bottom edgeA slightly forward, lean character in the treble that can read as either "detailed" (positive) or "etched/harsh" (negative) depending on the listener and recording. Distinct from sibilance, which is band-specific.. You also get a speaker base - it seems like it’s made out of a different material, but it’s not very heavy. It surely helps with stability and allows you to screw in the spikes, which are the real deal - super well-built, beautiful, and sharp like a knife - be careful with them.

You get a single pair of decent-quality binding posts, which limits bi-wiring or bi-ampingDriving the low-frequency and high-frequency sections of a speaker with separate amplifier channels, requiring either passive or active crossover filtering. options. These posts accept bare wire, spade connectors, and banana plugs, covering all your needs.

Technologies

This speaker is a 2-way passive floor stander. Yes, two-way - which means that the tweeterA small, lightweight driver designed for frequencies above approximately 2kHz, using a dome or ribbon diaphragm for low mass and fast response. is separate, dedicated to high frequencies, while two woofers work together reproducing midrangeThe frequency range from approximately 250Hz to 5kHz where most musical information, vocals, and instrument fundamentals reside. and bass. That’s a unique approach, as a 3-driver speaker would usually have a dedicated midrange and a dedicated bass unit. However, such a configuration allows for better bass extensionHow low in frequency a system accurately reproduces sound; good bass extension means 20Hz output, not just 60Hz.. The middle driver is not wasting its capabilities by being limited in its frequency band on the low end.

The tweeter itself is a dome construction with ceramic coating and a 25.5mm voice coilThe coil of wire wound on a cylindrical former that sits in the magnetic gap of a speaker motor; carrying audio current creates the force that moves the cone.. It has a type of phase plug in the middle, to help the sound diffuse in all directions, instead of beamingProgressive narrowing of a driver's radiation pattern as frequency rises, occurring when the wavelength becomes comparable to the driver diameter. Causes the high-frequency response to dim sharply off-axis. from just the very middle.

The low-frequency transducers are 170mm, around 6.7 inches with 35.5mm voice coils. They also have ceramic coating, with a very nice texture. The drivers seem to be of superb quality, and all of them are made of the same material - ceramic - so all frequency bands should have a similar timbreThe tonal quality of a sound - what makes a violin sound like a violin vs. a trumpet at the same pitch and volume; determined by harmonic content and envelope..

Technical Specs

The Chors 5 has a nominal impedanceThe rated impedance value for a loudspeaker - typically its average across the frequency range, often lower than the stated value at resonance. of 4 ohms, and it doesn’t dip below 3.7 ohms. That, paired with a sensitivityThe output sound pressure level for a standardized input - typically dBSPL at 1W/1m for speakers, or dBSPL at 1mW or 1V for headphones. of 90dB, makes it possible to drive with lots of electronics. It’s not the easiest to drive like some horn designs - you probably won’t get away with the least powerful, tiny tube amps - but it’s even further away from the most difficult to drive. I found that it pairs well with clean, fully transistor amplifiers, but you can feel free to experiment.

The speaker can handle up to 120W of power, which is a significant number considering its size. It probably won’t fill a huge hall, but you also won’t complain about the volume levels you’re able to achieve in real-world scenarios.

The frequency extension goes from 44Hz up to 22kHz at -3dB. This might not sound like anything special, but it has just two woofers that are doing the midrange at the same time. Plus, what’s even more surprising - it’s a closed-box design. Once you take those two aspects into consideration, it becomes much more serious. The bass rolls off much slower when it’s non-vented, so at let’s say 35Hz you’re still getting some usable output.

Sound Quality

If you placed Chors 5 in a room with 20 other loudspeakers and listened blindly to each one, it would likely stand out the most. Its sound is so distinct and unique that I am not sure I have ever heard anything similar.

Starting with the bass, it’s just different. And I’m so glad it is the way it is. Despite having just 2 medium-sized drivers, it doesn’t sound like it’s limited. The closed-box construction makes every note, from low bass to midrange, super dynamic, fast, and hard-hitting. It sounds like it extends much deeper than what the specs say. Yet it’s never bloated, it is quite far from that actually - some could even call them bass-light in some cases, but I think it is very balancedA signal transmission method using two opposite-polarity signal lines plus a ground; noise induced on both lines is cancelled at the differential input..

It sounded amazing with modern music filled with low-frequency energy. I usually don’t listen to such tracks, but these speakers made me occasionally pick a few electronic or pop songs.

The midrange seems to be slightly scooped out, not very forwardA tonal character with elevated upper midrange or lower treble that pushes vocalists and lead instruments ahead of the mix; can sound exciting or fatiguing., in your face, or shouty. The vocals take a step or two back in the mix, giving instruments the upper hand. Since it’s being reproduced by the same transducers as the bass, it shares very similar characteristics. It is also very dynamic, snappy, and “bouncy”.

The treble is another standout feature of this speaker. Tonally it is slightly brought up, but it is very, very smooth, almost to the point of feeling a bit rolled off, although it is definitely not. I would attribute that mostly to the ceramic coating, but I’m no engineer to guarantee that no other factor contributes to that.

I found that it sounded best at medium-high volumes, slightly above my regular listening levels, around 3 to 4dB higher, but not excessively loud. That’s when the soundstageThe perceived three-dimensional acoustic space in a stereo recording - width beyond the speakers, depth front-to-back, and sometimes height information. expanded dramatically, and the dynamic rangeThe decibel span between a system's maximum undistorted output and its noise floor; 16-bit audio has ~96dB, 24-bit has ~144dB of theoretical range. truly excelled. This speaker is one of the most dynamic in its class, without a doubt.

The detail retrieval is at a good level - it doesn’t project the nuances at you with a lot of force though. Instead, it makes most of them available to you, but you have to look for them. It makes for quite a pleasant experience in my opinion.

Older and less well-made recordings sound quite good with this speaker. It extracts a good amount of detail while smoothing over issues like pops, crackles, or reverberations. Whether you prefer a speaker that is true to the original recording or one that enhances your listening experience is personal. This speaker is clearly designed for enjoyment.

The soundstage size, while not the widest, is very believable. It does a good job of sounding real in the spatial cues, diffusing the individual sound sources just a little bit. Therefore the imagingThe ability to place individual instruments in precise, stable positions within the soundstage - good imaging means you can "point" to a violin in the mix. is far from being razor-sharp. But when you think about it, in real life audio sources also don’t sound like they come from a single point in space.

Overall, the Chors 5 is a very fun speaker with a fairly balanced, yet slightly V-shaped tonality. It can surprise you with the dynamic range, going from soft and delicate to super punchy notes. It can do a good job with both modern and very old recordings, because of its technical characteristics and tuning. It also makes it easy to enjoy it to its fullest with a small size for a floor-standing speaker and a relatively low weight. Additionally, you can place it somewhat close to the rear or side walls, as it doesn’t have a port, which would limit your options, making it sound overly boomy in non-ideal environments.