Simple Explanation

How much a speaker focuses sound in one direction instead of spreading it all around.

Concise Technical Definition

A measure of how a loudspeaker distributes sound in different directions, typically quantified as the Directivity Index (DI) in decibels or the Directivity Factor (Q) as a dimensionless ratio.

Layman-Friendly Analogy

Like the beam of a flashlight—some shine light in a wide glow, others in a tight spot; speakers do the same with sound.

Industry Usage Summary

Directivity is crucial for speaker placement, room design, and predicting acoustic reflections. Higher directivity means more focused sound, useful in reducing room interaction and improving clarity in treated or reflective spaces.

Engineering Shortcut

Directional sound control; expressed as DI (dB) or Q (unitless).

Full Technical Explanation

Loudspeaker directivity describes how a speaker radiates sound in space—whether it spreads sound widely or focuses it narrowly. It's quantified using two key metrics: the Directivity Index (DI), expressed in decibels (dB), and the Directivity Factor (Q), a dimensionless value. A speaker with high Q or DI projects more sound energy forward, while a lower value indicates more uniform, omnidirectional dispersion. These metrics help predict how a speaker interacts with room boundaries and how well it maintains on-axis vs. off-axis frequency response. Directivity is especially important in professional and home theater settings for optimizing imaging, clarity, and minimizing unwanted room reflections. Tools like polar plots and beamwidth charts are used to visualize directivity performance across frequencies.