Origin Acoustics speakers: the collections explained
Origin Acoustics, now based in Las Vegas, Nevada, launched its first speaker line in 2014, but its story starts much earlier. Two of its designers, Ken Humphries and Ed Haase, came up with a flush-mounting in-wall loudspeaker in the early 1980s, built in-wall and in-ceiling speakers for other brands, and launched SpeakerCraft in 1994. After SpeakerCraft was sold, they rejoined Jeremy Burkhardt, who had led its growth, and started Origin.
The catalogue is organised by where a speaker has to go:
- Director Collection: the premium in-ceiling line, with drivers from 3 to 10 inches.
- Composer Collection: thin, bezel-less in-wall speakers, including tall theatre and LCR models for a cinema front wall.
- ThinFit: models that mount with less than two inches of clearance behind the board.
- Minimal Opening: grilles about 4 inches across, with the woofer housed in a back box in the void above.
- BLENDS: invisible speakers that share one back box across sizes, plus matching subwoofers.
- Marine (Explorer) Collection: IP66-rated, sealed versions for waterfront homes.
- Outdoor: Seasons Landscape, Acoustic Landscape and Seasons Outdoor speakers, with subwoofers that can be buried.
Origin also makes amplifiers, made-to-order InstaWidth soundbars and a cinema range called Marquee.
Why Origin suits awkward ceilings and long gardens
Plenty of brands make one good in-ceiling range and leave the installer to make it fit. Origin's catalogue reads more like a toolkit for the problems that appear once a ceiling is opened. When a duct or a steel beam turns up exactly where a speaker was meant to go, ThinFit is the answer, because it needs almost no depth. A ceiling planned around small designer lights can take Minimal Opening grilles at a similar scale. Where nothing may show, BLENDS goes in, with a reusable placeholder protecting the opening while the boarding and finishing go on around it. Several Origin ranges also pivot, so sound can be aimed at the sofa when the joists force a speaker off-centre.
Outside, the range reaches further than most. Origin's Seasons Landscape speakers and subwoofers carry a 70 or 100 volt transformer tap, which Origin says can power each speaker up to half a mile from the source. On a large plot, a lawn, an orchard and a pool terrace can all run from electronics in the house, with no amplifiers out in the garden. Origin also says it designed the first luxury bollard loudspeaker, for paths and drives where a speaker can stand in plain view.
Planning Origin landscape speakers: zones, cable and bass
- Pick the system type for each area. Acoustic Landscape systems arrive as four satellites and a 10-inch subwoofer, expandable to eight satellites, which suits a single border or terrace. Seasons Landscape uses separate LS speakers and OSUB subwoofers that can be spread across a bigger site.
- Decide on 70V early. Long runs favour the 70 or 100 volt taps and a matching amplifier, while short runs near the house can stay at 8 ohms. The choice changes the cable and the electronics, so it belongs at design stage.
- Lay ducts before the turf. Seasons Landscape subwoofers are buried with only an earth-coloured cap showing, so their positions and ducts are best fixed while the landscaper still has the ground open, which is why our outdoor AV planning works from the landscape drawings.
- Point sound towards the house. Aiming satellites inwards keeps music on your lawn and out of the neighbours' garden.
- Match the rating to the spot. Seasons Outdoor speakers are rated IPx7, which Origin says means they can be submerged to three feet; the Marine Collection is IP66 with stainless steel fixings for homes by the water.
If streaming apps will be used outdoors, our data and Wi-Fi networks team would extend coverage to the terrace as part of the same plan.
