ARD Loudspeakers

We create pro audio and home stereo loudspeakers. Based in South Wales, UK

30/08/2026

A little preview of what we’ve been working on for Paradise Garden

26/08/2026

Why Jean Le Cléac’h horns?

Horn geometry has a huge influence on how a loudspeaker behaves — not just its frequency response, but its directivity, integration and ultimately how it sounds in the room.

For my latest design, I’ve chosen to use the Jean Le Cléac’h horn profile.

Developed by French engineer Jean-Michel Le Cléac’h, the profile was designed with particular attention to the behaviour of the wavefront through the horn and at the mouth. Rather than treating the horn simply as a way of increasing efficiency, the geometry aims for a smooth acoustic transition from the compression driver into the room.

That matters to me.

I’m not interested in using horns simply because they can play loud. What interests me is their combination of efficiency, controlled directivity and very low distortion — while retaining the natural, effortless presentation that a well-designed horn system can achieve.

The Le Cléac’h profile also lends itself particularly well to the large-format horn systems I like to build, where crossover design, driver spacing, directivity and acoustic behaviour all have to be considered as part of the same system.

There are easier and considerably smaller ways to build a loudspeaker…

But where would be the fun in that?

Horn designers — what profile do you prefer, and why?

25/08/2026

Bamboo.

A material I love to work with — and one that looks even better in person.

Cabinets by uncoveraudio
Cabinet tuning and crossovers by ARD Loudspeakers

19/08/2026

Ready to finish up wiring these hefty passive crossovers! Components are glued down with a polymer mounting adhesive, this creates a high strength flexible bond to absorb vibration. These individual boards will be mounted far apart to reduce overlapping magnetic fields from the inductors. It may look like overkill, but these will be mounted in a 3-way PA speaker with large high-frequency horns, which require lots of attenuation and treatment for horn resonance. All components have high power handling and low tolerances.

17/08/2026

Design Decisions:

Today we tried two resistor values on a compression driver

6.5 Ω
2.7 Ω

The measurements differed by 1-2db above 7khz, but at 100 dB listening levels the slightly softer top end was preferable

29/07/2026

Inside the crossover:

Part of the design process is always creating a physical version of the simulated crossover, taking summed sweeps and listening to it. The flattest response isn’t always the nicest sounding, especially if the speakers will be pushed hard. Sometimes, the drivers even need to have their polarity inverted! An LR2 crossover for example creates a 180 degree phase shift. However, this doesn’t take in to account the natural roll off of the driver, time alignment etc! Sometimes an LR2 filter for example has a response closer to 4th order. Our speakers all go through thorough R&D and testing, by ears and hardware/software tools

06/05/2026

Le Cleac’h 450 acoustic horns by Turn End Audio for an upcoming project. Paired with BMS coaxial compression drivers. Watch this space!

Address

Caerphilly
CF83

Website

https://ardloudspeakers.co.uk/

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