Alan O’Rourke, co-founder and managing director of Ruark, grew up in a house full of music. In the early 1970s, the arrival of stereo sound brought it to life in a way he’d never imagined.

His father Brian spent his career working in the British audio industry – and this passion passed quickly on to his son.

The father and son duo were both hi-fi enthusiasts in the purest sense: “For us, it was all about trying to recreate the performance as if you were there,” he says. “And this fascination has stayed with me ever since.”

We caught up with O’Rourke to find out more about his story – and the evolution of Ruark.

SM: Tell us about how you and your father began working together

AR: From leaving school in the 1940s he trained as a furniture maker which led on to him making cabinets for respected British brands of the time such as Hacker Radio and Dynatron and then on to working with some of the pioneers of the British hi-fi industry during the late 60s and beyond.

I trained as an Engineer with Ford Motor Company, but we both shared a passion for designing and making our own loudspeakers, which initially was a hobby. But encouraged by friends and family, in 1984, we started making plans for our first range of speakers.

SM: Talk us through your school days – how did you end up at Ford?

AR: I‘m somewhat embarrassed to say that my early academic achievement was not so good! My teachers always said that I was a dreamer, which is absolutely true as all I dreamed about then was playing my guitar in our school band and music in general.

As a young boy, I always enjoyed playing with toys where imagination and construction were involved, so when at the age of 16 I was offered the chance of an engineering apprenticeship with Ford, I took it. But even back then, all my free time involved music and playing with various bands.

For us, it was all about trying to recreate the performance as if you were there

SM: Talk us through the early years

AR: It’s an interesting fact that most companies in the audio industry were initially started by hobbyists and people with a passionate belief that they could do something better.

This is where my dad and I found ourselves in 1984 and with a couple of speaker designs now complete we started taking these around to local hi-fi shops. Such was the reaction that we formed a company called Ruark Acoustics to officially take our first loudspeakers – called Sabre and Broadsword – to market.

Ruark is a Celtic variation of our surname O’Rourke and although at the time it seemed like a huge risk, I’m pleased to say that our venture paid off. Within a few years, we were making a good name for ourselves among hi-fi enthusiasts – and all these years later, we hear regularly that customers are still enjoying our early designs.

SM: What were your founding principles?

AR: We’ve always designed and made products that we ourselves would be proud to own and it’s the passion for our products that drives us. If a product falls short of our expectations, then it’s back to the drawing board, until it sounds and looks as we want it to be.

SM: Talk us through the genesis of the original Sabre?

AR: With my Dad’s expertise as a cabinet and furniture maker, aesthetics have always been important to us and when we started developing our first Sabre speaker, we knew that we had to go the extra mile in terms of both sound and design to stand out against some already well-established competition.

This attention to design has, over the years, become our obsession and we understand that for many customers who take real pride in their surroundings, design is often equally important to them as sound.

Ruark R610 Music Console and Sabre-R Bookshelf Speakers.

SM: And tell us about the Sabre-R?

AR: I’ve always believed in cyclical trends, and after the AV wave, it’s been great to see how turntables and stereo systems have been rising in popularity these past few years.

With our radios and all-in-one systems having carved a successful niche, the timing just seemed right to get back to our roots and launch our first set of speakers in 18 years alongside our new R610 Streaming Amplifier.

It also seemed right that we should name them after our very first speakers developed 40+ years ago, and so Sabre-R has been born.

From the outset, we knew that we had to pull out all the stops to make the Sabre-Rs something special, as we will be judged on our past reputation, so we really hope that customers like them as much as we do.

SM: Cabinet making is in your blood – what techniques does Ruark employ that elevate it above the competition?

AR: We love working with wood as – like a fingerprint – the grain structure makes each piece unique, but more importantly it’s also one of the best materials for sound quality.

Through years of knowledge and careful design, we ensure that our enclosures are tuned to provide optimum conditions for the electronics and drive units, so a pure and natural sound is produced.

At Ruark, we design products that are as pleasing to the eye as they are to the ear

SM: Does Ruark have a signature sound?

AR: I love listening to sound in general, be it music or just the sounds of the world around me! I try to get out whenever possible to experience live music and being a fairly competent guitarist, I think I have a good idea of what sounds right.

The sound of Ruark is dynamic, but not in your face and the bass should be tight and tuneful. The all-important midrange should offer projection when needed and be seamless through the crossover region leading to a high frequency performance that sparkles and adds life to each performance.

During development we spend hours listening and tweaking. As with all loudspeakers, small adjustments can make a big difference, but instinctively we know the sound is right, when we start delving into our music collection and just playing one track after another, enjoying the sound.

SM: Ruark’s designs stand out from the crowd – yet your products are designed to fit into their surroundings. How do you manage that balance?

AR: I’ve always loved design and in particular studying how fashions and trends have changed over the years, but one thing that stands out to me is how great design can become timeless if done right.

As already discussed, even with our early systems, we always paid attention to the aesthetics, as we understood that for many people, good sound was important, but also they wanted products that fitted well into their homes.

These days this factor is even more important, so we design products that are as pleasing to the eye as they are to the ear. In fact, people often tell us that our music systems are an inspiration for their interior design – and this we love to hear.

Ruark’s R410 is its latest all-in-one player, with aesthetics heavily inspired by the 1970s, yet a connectivity offering at the forefront of today’s technology.

SM: What’s been your toughest decision in running the business – and did it work out?

AR: I think it was at the turn of the Millenium when customer focus seemed to be more on vision and expensive early flat panel TVs rather than hi-fi systems.

At the time we responded to this change with a range of Home Cinema speaker packages, but as hi-fi enthusiasts, being honest, this was not a period we really enjoyed.

I’ve always been an avid radio listener and what with the BBC really starting to promote DAB as the future of radio broadcasting, I thought that it would be a good idea to look at developing our own ‘hi-fi’ radio. After investigating the market and looking at what else was available, we started development in earnest, in 2004 and launched our first R1 DAB/FM radio in 2006.

We designed R1 as if it were a small hi-fi speaker, and the result was that it quickly gained recognition as one of the best sounding radios available. This new venture was at the time a huge leap of faith for us, but I’m pleased to say that it worked out well and with the introduction of our R2 stereo radio and soon after the R4 All-in One system, interest in what we were doing started to grow rapidly, so the decision was taken to put our speakers on ice and go with the flow.

The thing that I really enjoyed about our new venture was that we were attracting attention not just from audio enthusiasts, but from a whole new range of customers, and to hear from many that they had never heard their music sound so good, encouraged us greatly that we were doing the right thing.

SM: Does Ruark collaborate with other brands or individuals? Anything in the pipeline?

AR: We enjoy collaborations, as they bring attention from customers who may not have previously heard of us. Over the past few years we’ve worked on exclusive products for Linley who are an ultra-high end furniture brand and we regularly produce exclusive custom colour versions of our R1 radio for John Lewis and also Nordoff & Robbins who are a musical therapy charity.

Our most recent collaboration is with the iconic clothing brand Fred Perry, where we have produced a custom version of our award winning MR1 speakers. These are finished in a graphite lacquer and for the grille covering we have used their famous cotton piqué material with their embroidered laurel logo. These speakers will be sold exclusively through Fred Perry flagship stores around the world.

Ruark's collaboration with iconic British brand, Fred Perry including a bespoke adaptation of its multi award-winning MR1 Bluetooth Speaker System.

SM: What are the biggest challenges facing Ruark?

AR: As everyone who runs their own business will know, running a business is never straightforward and just when you think you have everything under control, then some issue will come out of the woodwork to knock you off track.

This is just part of day-to-day running, but for us, our biggest challenges are stock control and making sure that we have everything needed to build a certain product when required.

Many of our products have hundreds of individual components and if a few components are in short supply, then this can often hold production up for weeks.

The worst time was during Covid when factories were closed and many components were on indefinite lead times. Thankfully supply is now heading back to normal, but we hope that we will never see such a period again.

SM: The business is still family run – how’s the next generation shaping up?

AR: The family elements of our business are myself as Managing Director; Neil Adams, my brother-in-law as Financial Director, and my Son David, whose passion is videography and computer animation, so he is constantly working on content for our website and social media.

Beyond this we have a fantastic closely knit team and I’m proud to say that the whole vibe of the company does indeed feel like a family.

I’m now 66 and Neil 65 and with so much to do and exciting stuff happening we both wish we were 20 years younger, but the aim over the next few years is to add a few more special people to our team, so we will still be involved, but can step back a bit, and let a younger team take the reins while we still enjoy the ride.

See more at ruarkaudio.com