Directionality is a normally an almost completely unwanted quality in speakers. You want speakers to be heard equally well from all directions (that are frontward of the speaker's baffle). That's one reason why speaker boxes use multiple speakers, and these get smaller for the higher frequency ranges. "Dome tweeters" are shaped as such in order to radiate all around.
A "full range" speaker will send the lows in all directions but the highs mainly in the direction of its axis. A listener caught in the beam will hear a shrill sound, whereas someone off axis hears it muffled. Guitar speakers are like this; particularly the 12" ones and particularly in the 4x12 cabinet arrangement. Sometimes musicians use dispersing devices mounted on the speakers, like "beam blockers". Or the speaker is picked up by a microphone close to it, so that the audience hears it fro the PA system (which solves the sound dispersion problems in its own way).
There are situations in which it is desirable for a speaker box to "beam", like when it is mounted far away or high above a target listening area that is relatively small, calling for the speaker to be a kind of spotlight.
A "full range" speaker will send the lows in all directions but the highs mainly in the direction of its axis. A listener caught in the beam will hear a shrill sound, whereas someone off axis hears it muffled. Guitar speakers are like this; particularly the 12" ones and particularly in the 4x12 cabinet arrangement. Sometimes musicians use dispersing devices mounted on the speakers, like "beam blockers". Or the speaker is picked up by a microphone close to it, so that the audience hears it fro the PA system (which solves the sound dispersion problems in its own way).
There are situations in which it is desirable for a speaker box to "beam", like when it is mounted far away or high above a target listening area that is relatively small, calling for the speaker to be a kind of spotlight.