Legacy Audio names Jay McArdle CEO in ownership change

Legacy Audio named Jay McArdle as its new CEO and owner. The loudspeaker company's founder, Bill Dudleston, introduced McArdle in a letter carrying a Springfield, Illinois dateline of 24 July 2025.

Dudleston remains Chief Designer under the ownership transition, which began during AXPONA in Chicago in April. The transition plan keeps the company's factory in Springfield, retains its staff and adds employee health benefits. Legacy designs and assembles its loudspeakers at the Illinois facility.

McArdle's relationship with Dudleston extended roughly twenty years before the announcement. During that period, McArdle grew a family business with his brothers into a global integration company and visited Legacy with loudspeaker installation requirements for theaters, universities, churches, museums, stadiums and boardrooms. He had expressed interest in owning Legacy Audio several times before the transaction.

Legacy Audio began more than four decades before the announcement as a privately held, family-owned and operated loudspeaker business. Its approach included refining products over time, backing them with a seven-year warranty and maintaining trade-in policies. The company's technical work encompasses loudspeaker directivity control, digital signal processing, room correction and internal amplification.