Quote Originally Posted by Barry View Post
Lovely system you have there Andy. Well done! I love both the Technics deck and the SME arm and would put them together if they were mine.

Apropos the speakers, most if not all, planar speakers have a dipole polar sound distribution. That is, almost as much sound is radiated from the rear of the speaker as from the front. Therefore the speakers ideally need to be placed about a metre away from any hard surface behind them in order to prevent problems with reflection. If the rear wall has some sound absorbing material on it then you might be able to get away with a smaller distance.

To answer Steve's question: all planar speakers need to be reasonably large so as to move a sufficient volume of air. Planar speakers have a limit on the amount their diaphragms can move. For electrostatic speakers, the charged diaphragm is located between a pair of perforated driving electrodes spaced only a few mm apart. Thus the amount of fore/aft movement is very small, so the area has to be made large to compensate. Electrostatic speakers are thus either wide or tall, and in some cases both.
Thanks Barry - The SME V used to be on the SP10 and it was good, but the AT1010 just works better for my ears (not eyes) for the SQ.

Yep, I am aware of how they work regarding the rear radiation.
At the moment, where they are positioned and from my listening chair, they do sound very good but I know they can be improved upon.
First will be to remove the speakers from behind and judge what has changed - baby steps and all that