AN EVENING OF JAZZ ON VINYL WITH THE FIRST PUBLIC SHOWING OF THE NEW ORIGAMI 86TH SYSTEM

Ludovic Fournier is the creator of the Origami project and the Origami 86TH System which we were invited to hear at a “Soiree Audiophile Ecoute de Vinyles Jazz” (Vinyl Jazz Evening) at the Conservatoire Saint Brieuc which is in Brittany, North West France.

We have attended these Jazz evenings before and they are a combination of an audiophile event, featuring the kind of exotic HiFi that you would most likely encounter at a HiFi Show and some great Jazz with both familiar tracks and new discoveries. The evening’s event was run by Alain Loguillard and Christian Harle of the local association Jazz Angle and the system supplied by our friend Jean-Luc Sazio, who is a committed audiophile and lover of both music and HiFi gear, along with Gilles of Leedh and Ludovic of Origami.

The launch of the Origami 86th System at Jazz Angle’s Vinyl Jazz Evening

At the previous events, the loudspeakers were from Leedh, the Leedh E2 are an incredibly original, insectoid in appearance loudspeaker that we have reviewed and also heard at various HiFi Shows in the last decade.

LEEDH PROCESSING

However, Gilles Milot of Leedh is now concentrating on Leedh Processing, the first application of which is related to volume control. Leedh Processing Volume claims to be the first lossless digital volume controller and it is being implemented by HiFi brands such as Metronome, Lumin, Solution, 3D Lab, Vermeer and Wattson Audio.. Gilles explains: “Some digital processing increases the necessary number of bits for coding the processed signal. So, this number of bits can exceed the limit of the DAC conversion, requiring a truncation of the signal, the truncation destroys part of the information contained in the signal”. The Leedh Processing principle consists of minimizing the number of additional bits, in order to reduce or to eliminate the truncation-related loss of information.

Left to right, Jean-Luc, Ludovic and Gilles with the system

ORIGAMI PROJECT

The Origami Project is the brainchild of Ludovic Fournier who worked for many years with Gilles on the Leedh loudspeakers. Before that Ludovic spent ten years with Harman Automotive Audio. The Vinyl Jazz evening was the first outing for his system in public.

Ludovic with his creation

Ludovic told us: “When Gilles decided to focus on signal processing activities, I took the opportunity to continue the hard work and knowledge we had acquired by launching my own company. The Origami project has a direct affiliation with the Leedh concept whilst taking a different starting point”. Ludovic took into account the observations of the Leedh customers, listing the needs and the difficulties they encountered with actual systems.

This formed the basis of the Origami Project, with specifications to achieve better performance and fidelity than existing products, deliver a fully optimized system including cables and amplifiers, which only required the addition of a source and to keep the Leedh evolution concept that the customers loved so much.

ORIGAMI 86TH SYSTEM

The Origami 86^th system uses a large emitting surface with low excursion, but this carries with it the problems of limited bandwidth and limited directivity. The team chose to work with multiple small flat sandwich membrane drivers. The two top sphere units are an assembly of 60 drivers and 2 tweeters, these small drivers together have a sensitivity of 104dB/W, and a bandwith up to 8Khz.

The Sphere on top of the speaker

The spherical arrangement of the drivers is designed so that there is no cabinet vibration interference, 80% of the surface is active. Vibration cancellation is achieved with the drivers acting opposite to each other and directivity control is achieved with special sound processing of each separate driver. 3D printing is used to create the cabinet.

Origami 86th System

On the same principles, the lower subwoofer units also use multiple small drivers (twelve 17cm pro audio drivers) to get an equivalent emitting surface of three 15-inch drivers. The hexagonal box of twelve divers is built entirely of high strength, 20mm thick aluminium. Each of the drivers has its own enclosure and independent volume control and they are able get as low as 25Hz (-3dB).

In total each system has 86 drivers, hence the name of Origami 86^th.

AMPLIFICATION AND DSP

This signal processing is operated by two 20 DSP channels supported by a battery of isolation transformers. For the amplification, a set of 2 x 12 channels of 125w are dedicated to the spheres and for the bass, 2×8 channels of 250w feed the subwoofer part. That gives less than 7000w in total that can power the system under optimum conditions.

Amplification and DSP

ORIGAMI 86TH SYSTEM CROSSOVER

Obviously, a passive crossover for 86 drivers would be exceptionally difficult, so for the Origami 86^th, a digital crossover has been developed. The team has developed a signal processing algorithm that allows them to optimally control their “small army” of drivers. Optimization of the frequency response, adaptability of the directivity and correction of the phase are also made possible.

The Origami 86th System includes everything apart from the source

OMNIDIRECTIONALITY?

Even though the shape and the arrangement of the loudspeakers might lead one to think that the system is omnidirectional, the Origami 86th system has the same directivity as a conventional loudspeaker… but Ludovic does say that: “We can on the other hand choose on this principle to focus or to widen the zone of sound diffusion”.

So, back to the evening of musical delights and I’ll hand over to Stu who will fill you in on what he thought of the sound of this Origami 86th System…obviously this isn’t a review, because reviewing is done in one’s own listening room…

THE SOUND OF ORIGAMI

I didn’t know a thing about these speakers other than at some point Gilles Milot of Leedh fame was somehow involved, beyond that all I knew was that I had to turn up and listen to some jazz. I’d been to these events in the past and the guys that put them together do a great job, though, I have to confess, I have always found the music they play somewhat challenging. Obscure jazz is not my thing and judging by the guffaw that went up from the guy to my left as the opening bars of The George Russel Septet “The Stratus Seekers” began playing I wasn’t alone. The music continued in a similar vein though I did find Jimmy and Doug Raney’s “Invitation” foot tappingly interesting, Walt Dickerson and Sun Ra’s “Space Dance” fascinating, and Bob Moses’ Black Orchid mesmerizing. However, I have to concede that for the main part Jazz of this kind is not my thing, but horses for courses and all that.

Back to the speakers. As I mentioned, I knew pretty much zilch about them and I like it that way when approaching something new. It gives me no preconceptions. I suppose at this point I should emphasise that this little write up is not a review! I have very strong opinions of folk that write up reviews based on their thoughts of a product that they encounter in a shop/show/event. To me a review should be conducted in familiar surroundings and with ancillary kit you know intimately, though not in the biblical sense – that’s wrong and frowned upon even in the most liberal of audiophile circles. Anyway, I’ll leave the business of “reviewing” gear in shops and round at a mates for other publications.

I walked into the room, after having my “vax pass” scrutinised and grabbed one of the couple of seats left amongst the masked faces. My position was about half-way down the room and off to the right which is not ideal when my main focus of the night was to have a listen to a new pair of speakers. Ha! I shouldn’t have feared because my cursory glance as I walked past the Origami speakers indicated that they were clearly omni-directional models…or so I thought. Appearances can be deceptive, however, and it was clear from those first few jarring lines of The Stratus Seekers that if these were truly omnidirectional loudspeakers then something was a bit awry. The soundstage wasn’t bad by any stretch in my position, but it wasn’t what I was expecting at all and in this respect the Origami had the air of a more conventional loudspeaker.

I jotted a few notes down along the lines of the speakers sounding dynamic and quite lifelike but couldn’t get it out of my head that I’d have to write on our return to Pig Towers that the designer had somehow failed in his goal of achieving a true omni. I tapped Linette in the shoulder, the seats were spaced 1m apart as per Covid regulations, and said something along the lines of “These don’t sound right for omnis”, to which she replied, “They’re not!”. So once I’d got that preconception based on the speakers’ looks out of my head I could sit and enjoy them a little more. Top-end was a little too much for my liking, but I don’t really know if that’s down to me or the unfamiliar music that was playing.

The clock ticked towards nine and as the tune playing ended a whole load of people stood up and left. Bit rude, I thought, but then I believe that the event had to finish bang on time due to the current restrictions. This sudden outflux of faceless French folk did give me the opportunity to jump into what was clearly the best seat in the (large) room – bang centre and halfway down the room. The next tune played and everything snapped spatially into place and the speakers began to make a whole lot more sense and it was now easy to get a very real impression of the musicians playing out before me. This was a big room to fill for relatively small speakers, despite them having loads of drivers. Speed of attack and decay were obvious and was the dynamic nature of the speakers.

Looks-wise the Origami speakers are going to draw negative comments in their current guise. The immediate comparison is going to be that they look like a small PA speaker, perhaps from Bose. The hexagonal bass with a multi-faceted “sphere” on a stalk is certainly a bold statement and I think that from an aesthetic perspective they need to have some kind of acoustically transparent frame or sock arrangement around them if they are to have wide appeal. Personally, I could very well live them, but I’m weird and love things that are different and dare to be what they are and stand out from the crowd. Perhaps I’m wrong and they will appeal!

These are actives and come replete with crossovers, amps, DSP and cables – but they are not cheap. Nor, when you take into consideration it’s a complete system (less source and pre) are they outrageously expensive at €50K – if that figure upsets you then move along and accept these aren’t for you (suggested reading).

The long and the short of this evening is that the Origami speakers have, at the very least, piqued my interest to request a home trial for a day or so where I can get a better feel for them in a room I know and with music that is familiar and I know will push the speakers – I’d LOVE to hear these with electronic music and think, based on my brief encounter, that this kind of music really would play to their apparent strengths.

Stuart Smith

ORIGAMI 86TH SYSTEM SPECIFICATIONS AND PRICE

High-End Active Stereo sound source with 86 drivers

101dB/W sensitivity 7000W total power 25Hz- 20 000Hz

40 Amplifier channels

40 DSP channels, low distortion, extreme stereo stage and dynamics

3 years optimisation of all components

Dimensions: L402mm – Hl 250mm – 0350mm

The system includes: Loudspeakers, Amplifiers/DSP Block, Cables and DSP Power Supply

The system as we heard it costs in the region of 50,000€, which includes everything except for the source, this isn’t the fixed price as Ludovic is still in the process of setting up sales channels, distribution etc.