I believe I experienced great PRAT for the first time


Pace, Rhythm and Timing - I've often heard about it, mainly in the context of certain turntables, but I don't think I've really experienced it in a highly satisfactory way until today when I mounted my new Soundsmith Hyperion, an upgrade from my Sussorro. Halfway through side two of Stevie Wonder's Original Musiquarium, it suddenly dawned on me that there was more going on than improvements in clarity, detail, neutrality, bass punch and other rather specific traits that I've until this point used to refer to what I'm hearing. For the first time in the 30 years I've had this album, I was struck by a sense of flow, ease, relaxation, and my feet were tapping! Yes, this must be it. I connected with the music at a higher level just now, something new to me. Get all the details correct, and the PRAT appears in front of you. So, this was nothing to do with the fact that my turntable runs at the correct speed with low W/F, as it was performing well at that before. I had assumed that's what PRAT meant. Perhaps it means that too, in a speed stability sense.

earthtones

Showing 4 responses by earthtones

A highly modified VPI classic 4, with the SOTA Eclipse motor and controller upgrade, including an Origin Live belt and an SME 312S arm and Funk Achromat mat, and last but not least, ISO Acoustics Gaia 2 feet. The motor is sitting on two levels of rubber standoffs to eliminate transmitted noise through the highly conductive plinth. The belt I had to run the calculations on and experiment with several belts to get the perfect one down to the millimeter, as the motor is fixed. The reason I bought the table in the first place was that it was relatively cheap way to get a table that would take a 12 inch arm. So, I was able to overcome the severely under engineered design, over a period of several years of frustration as I discovered deficiencies, to provide a great platform to let this new cartridge sing. 

Measured wow/flutter, according to multiple trials with Analog Magic, is around .06%. This is a decent figure for sure, but to improve it I suspect I’d need to overhaul the bearing, which I’m not willing to do at this point. The next upgrade will be a new table. 

The rest of my system was waiting- Pass XP-27, ARC Ref 6SE, Vandersteen M5-HPA, Vandersteen 5A Carbon, PS Audio P20 for sources, AQ 5000 for amps, AQ water IC, AQ William Tell Silver biwire, AQ Hurricane, and some other odds and ends. There’s a digital side as well but it’s not worth mentioning here as the PRAT is largely missing from that.

In my system that I described earlier, I think the Hyperion does everything extremely well, PRAT, tone, whatever. I think it’s a simple matter of superior tracking ability combined with ultra low moving mass and resonance- how do you beat a cactus thorn, lol, in combination with the Ortofon Replicant profile?

Another thing I’ve noticed is that this cartridge scales like nothing I’ve heard - it sounds clean, steady and articulate right up through the highest crescendos in symphonic pieces, which is another testament to it tracking ability and high resolution.