Can someone please please tell me how to turn off “directional sound” or whatever it might be called?
Having sound effect and dialogue suddenly cut off when I turn away is really jarring and breaks my immersion significantly.
I have already tried playing with “Distance Filtering” and “Enable Reverb” to no effect.
You might want to double-check your speaker setup in Windows (I’m assuming you’re a Windows user). I’ve occasionally had similar issues after installing a Windows update where the system would decide for some reason that I had surround sound speakers installed, and the game would direct dialog to non-existent speakers depending on which direction I was facing.
To check this in Windows 10, right-click on the volume icon in your tool tray and select Sounds, select the Playback tab, scroll down to your active output device (the one with a green check mark), click on it then click on the Configure button. Make sure the speaker configuration matches your actual setup. You might need to restart the game after making any necessary changes.
That worked!! Thank you so much 
Any update for Windows 11? I’m having the same issue now.
The same thing can still happen in Windows 11, I just had to fix my speaker setup again yesterday.
To check your speaker configuration in Win11, right click on the volume control in the tool tray & select Sound Settings to bring up the Sound control panel. In the Advanced section click on More sound settings. Scroll down to your active output device (the one with a green check mark), click on it then click on the Configure button.
I’m still having the same problem even after doing what you said for Windows 11. I’m using 2 Bose speakers, audio channel is stereo, full range speaker option is left unchecked because I only have 2 speakers.
if you have any utilities for your audio system (like from Realtek or Creative Labs/SoundBlaster) then check your speaker configuration in those as well, sometimes those can be different than the Windows settings. If neither of those is wrong, then I don’t know what else to suggest.
As for full range speakers, if you selected stereo audio it assumes you have full range speakers; that’s only an optional setting for 5.1 audio where they want to know how good the surround speakers are.
I was just wondering about this when levelling a Dwarf Pally, I got Kraken Razor headset which is THX Spartial. I decided to change my audio to the (game) instead of THX which fixes the audio.
Like, I get it. It does make it more immersive hearing their voices echo and seem farer away but WoW just wasn’t built for this.
I’ve got a similar, but different issue. 5.1 Logitech Z906 surround sound system. Motherboard supports 5.1, and all plugs are in the proper places.
Audio test sends audio to the proper speakers.
But in WoW, everything is messed up. With the current Anniversary event, I can sit in the front row in the middle, with my camera back a little bit to about the 3rd row. Lorewalker Cho is at the far left, touching the edge of the screen. But when he talks, his voice is coming out my rear right speaker. The person sitting to my right comes out faintly from my front left speaker. The person sitting to my left comes out faintly from in front of me. But things behind me are extremely loud.
Imagine my surprise doing a Delve and standing next to a waterfall. While I can see it, it’s quiet, but I can hear it. As soon as it goes behind the camera, however, I’m deafened by Niagara Falls suddenly relocating to behind my monitor.
I’ve updated audio drivers, complete with a proper uninstall/reboot/install/reboot. I’ve changed my audio properties to the lowest bitrate, with effects on and off. I’ve changed my audio properties to the highest bitrate, with effects on and off. I’ve turned Reverb and Directional on and off in game. Every time I changed something I changed WoW’s output device between “System Default” and the speakers directly.
Nothing fixes it, and it’s only WoW that has this issue…
Put in a Ticket, get told to ask the community. Ask the community, get told to post in Bug Reports. But so far I’m feeling like the only person to ever have this problem.
DDU + a Video Driver reinstall might fix it. Pretty sure directional audio is part of your video drivers moreso than sound drivers these days.
Just did a DDU, restart, driver install via GeForce Experience, and the issue persists.