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 2 responses by frogman

**** I can live with tonal aberrations, whereas the groove or the flow is the heart and soul of music, and that tiny nuances in this metric are what separate ‘great’ musicians from the also rans..****

Agree 100%. 

Congrats!  

Every type of component influences PRAT (if that is what one wants to call it) to one degree or another. We tend to be more comfortable describing issues of tonal and spatial distortion, but less so issues of rhythmic distortion. Sure, source components (tt’s, especially) tend to be the worse culprits, but I have experienced amps and preamps that are more rhythmically “alive” than others and some that sound rhythmically stifled; regardless of tonal signatures. I’ll let the more technically astute explain why.

**** I think descriptors such as micro and macro dynamics, transients, attack and decay are far more precise terms. ****

Agree.