Architecture

3SB Audio is built around an architectural position rather than a traditional component-by-component hi-fi approach.

During the period that preceded the formal project portfolio, it became increasingly clear that active loudspeakers, explicit DSP, and design cues borrowed from professional audio offered a more coherent direction for experimentation than passive consumer-audio conventions.

That position informs the portfolio's emphasis on integrated loudspeaker, amplifier, DSP, and transport layers, with measurement, repeatability, and network-oriented signal distribution treated as first-order design constraints.

Class D Amplification

Class D amplification is the natural fit for multichannel active loudspeakers because it allows many amplifier channels to be deployed with practical cost, power density, thermal behaviour, and energy efficiency.

For the driver types used across the portfolio, modern Class D modules also measure and perform closely enough to audible neutrality that they rarely justify becoming the dominant variable in the system. That makes them more useful as transparent infrastructure than as a source of deliberate coloration.

CAD and CAM

Cabinet and hardware development are treated as digital design problems from the outset. CAD is used to control geometry, driver placement, internal volume, assembly tolerances, service access, and repeatable revision management.

CAM then closes the loop by turning those digital models into manufacturable toolpaths and repeatable cut data. The result is a faster path from concept to prototype and a much tighter connection between design intent and physical outcome.

Simulation

Simulation is used to reduce design risk before material is cut. VituixCAD is used as a practical loudspeaker-development environment for crossover, directivity, and system-integration work, while AKABAK is used where more detailed acoustic and enclosure behaviour needs to be explored.

These tools do not replace measurement, but they materially improve iteration speed by making the prototype programme more informed before fabrication begins.

Prototype Manufacturing

Prototype loudspeakers are manufactured with a combination of CNC machining and 3D printing. CNC is used where panel accuracy, repeatability, rib geometry, and assembly alignment matter, while 3D printing is used for brackets, guides, adapters, fixtures, and smaller custom parts that would be inefficient to machine conventionally.

Together, those methods allow geometry, assembly method, and service details to evolve quickly without abandoning repeatable manufacturing practice.

Audio Over IP

Audio-over-IP became a central area of exploration because it aligns with active multichannel systems more naturally than fixed point-to-point consumer signal chains. It allows playback, conversion, processing, and control to be separated cleanly while preserving routing flexibility.

The protocol families explored so far include Dante, AES67/Ravenna, and AVB, now increasingly expressed through Milan profiles for interoperable professional-audio deployments.

Protocol Position

AVB/Milan is the current preferred direction because it is grounded in open standards, has a comparatively open architectural model, and better supports long-term experimentation with consumer-facing AoIP systems than proprietary alternatives.

This position does not exclude other transports from evaluation, but it does define the current reference direction for network-audio work across the portfolio.

Transport Architecture

AoIP technologies such as Milan point toward a cleaner loudspeaker architecture in which network endpoints, DACs, and amplifier channels are integrated into the speaker itself, while DSP and talker functions are provided by compact fanless computer units. That reduces cable complexity substantially and turns the signal chain into a more elegant distributed system.