The acoustic characteristics of a direct radiator type loudspeaker has been studied in this paper. The natural modes of the speaker cone vibration analyzed numerically by the finite element method have been verified by comparing them with experimental results. The so-ap-proved finite-element model has been used to calculate the vibration response of the cone excited by the voice coil. The vibration displacement of the speaker cone paper has been converted into the vibration velocity and used as a boundary condition for the acoustic analysis. The frequency characteristics, directivity, and sound pressure distribution of the loudspeaker have been calculated by the boundary element method. The numerical results have been verified by the experiments carried out in an anechoic chamber. The variations of the acoustic characteristics due to the changes of some design parameter values can be examined using the numerical model.