Loudspeaker Directivity
An Ongoing Experimental Survey
Loudspeaker Directivity is the extent to which loudspeakers beam the sound towards the listener instead of broadcasting it in all directions around the room. Loudspeaker Directivity is the single most important loudspeaker property for 3D audio with crosstalk cancellation (XTC), since room reflections directly degrade the level of crosstalk cancellation. There is a very high correlation between loudspeakers with high directivity and high XTC levels. Consequently, the 3D3A lab is conducting detailed measurements of the directivity of various loudspeakers measured in the lab's anechoic chamber.
The following is a list of the loudspeakers measured to date, in order of decreasing directivity:
Click on a plot to see a full HD version.
Click on the name of the speaker to see the full measurement data and related info.
Notes on the measurements: The directivity measurements were carried out in the anechoic chamber of the 3D3A Lab using a B&K Microphone Type 4189 placed 1.6 m from the loudspeaker being tested, and at the same height as that of the center of the loudspeaker's tweeter. The loudspeaker was placed on a rotation stage, which was turned by increments of 5 degrees. The data reduction and plotting were carried out using custom software developed at the 3D3A Lab. The measurements were taken by Lukasz Mosakowski and Tim Matchen under the direction of Prof. Choueiri.
If you know of any loudspeakers that may have particularly high directivity please inform the 3D3A Lab. We will try to acquire these loudspeakers and measure their directivity.
Coming soon on this page, directivity measurements for the following speakers: Avantgarde Solo (horn/concentric), OMA mini (horn/dynamic), and Sanders M10 (electrostatic).