AV Case Study: Haven Coffee
Haven Coffee’s project manager, Andrew Lee, specifies LD Systems’ Curv 500 in its new Green Square shop.
9 December 2025
Text:/ Christopher Holder
‘Head Roaster & Production Manager’. Gee, it’d be great to have that on a business card. Haven Coffee’s Andrew Lee does indeed exalt in such a job title, so this being AV.technology it was our obligation to get straight into some serious coffee bean talk.
“I’d say 70 percent of a great coffee is down to the farmer,” observes Andrew Lee. “Then 20 percent is in the roast and 10 percent is down to the barista. So it’s possible to have the best coffee product in the world and for the barista to mess it up, but you need to start with great raw beans from the producer.
“As the roaster, my guiding principle is to represent each coffee as transparently and honestly as possible. Every coffee has a story: it came from a country, was grown by a farmer, picked by people. My job as a roaster is to tell that story faithfully. I’m not creating flavours – all the flavours are already there. I’m just finding the best way to express them.”
Haven Coffee’s new outlet at Green Square (where it joins four other Haven Coffees in and around Sydney) has a roasting lab. It’s effectively Andrew Lee’s coffee playground where he does sample roasts and conducts tasting sessions. It’s a cool addition to the new shop design – Haven’s flagship. The location is in line with other Haven Coffees – in new developments that attract business and residential customers.
THIRD SPACE
Andrew Lee describe’s Haven Coffee’s DNA by leaning on the term ‘third space’. It’s a modern concept where students, residents and office workers appreciate an alternative place (not home or the office) to unwind, snack, take meetings, and chip away at their inbox. It’s an inviting space. Not intimidating but smart, with friendly staff. Music plays a key role.
Andrew Lee: “Music has always been part of Haven. It’s a key facilitator of the third-space experience. Without music, customers will tend to whisper and they’ll be very aware of conversations around them. Music at the right level creates a more relaxed, conversational environment for customers and staff.”
Getting an audio system right wasn’t straightforward. The L-shaped geometry of the space created a challenge, as did the height of the mounting points for any installation. Plus, more was expected of the loudspeakers than simply background music.
“I wanted some flexibility,” explains Andrew Lee. “The system needed to be just as comfortable in an event or function role, as well as having the headroom to crank it up after hours or for special occasions.”
Four LD Systems Curv 500 arrays cover the café, matched with two Curv 500 subs. The loudspeakers couldn’t be mounted any lower due to structural considerations.
ALL THE RIGHT CURVS
In his research, Andrew Lee came across LD Systems’ Curv 500 series. It’s a system based on a modular column array that can comprise a flexible number of elements depending on the vertical coverage required.
The cube-like Curv 500 Satellite units connect into each other without cabling — making it a very scalable system. A single Curv 500 Satellite houses one four-inch speaker and three one-inch HF units, with a quoted horizontal dispersion of 110 degrees. Each is rated at 16 Ohms and you can ‘lego-fit’ a maximum of six units together to run up to a 2 Ohm system (which the LD Systems Curv 500 amplifiers are capable of handling).
The result is a very neat audio solution with a diffuse horizontal dispersion.
Andrew Lee specified two LD Systems Curv 500 Subs to complement the four Curv 500 arrays evenly spaced around the perimeter of the venue. A single four-channel Curv 500 amp not only powers the system but provides the processing necessary to dovetail with the exact configuration of the Curv 500 system.
“The Curv 500 system sounded good straight out of the box,” notes Andrew Lee. “They’re simple enough to install for me to hand that task over to the trades who were already in. I then did the final fine-tuning. Most of the time we’ve hardly got the system ticking over, and it can go hard – there’s plenty in reserve.”
The other big consideration is price: “The value is incredible,” according to Andrew. “We’re looking at opening our own roastery next year, which will be a venue as well as be our own roasting warehouse, and I’d definitely be looking at the LD Systems’ product as our first-choice audio option.”
Haven Coffee: havencoffee.com.au
Link Audio (LD Systems): linkaudio.com.au
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