"Pace", it's importance for enjoyment?

Phew!...interesting posts. I too have to report much pleasure from the use of a Neuance platform under my old CDP. Is the fine "pace" a function of the improved coherence from perceiving harmonics as better "attached" to their fundamentals? Is it the ABSENCE of distorting spurious vibrations that I then take as cleaner...and therefore quicker (more musical) information?
I used to think of PraT as being more a function of impulse
response and group delay in the gross aspects of the reproduction chain, meaning of course the speaker drivers.
Bass "lag" is a horrendous problem in pro audio. I have a friend who manufactures powered monitors for musicians. He purposely rolls the response off below 70Hz (!) specifically to eliminate that lagging sensation of "the bass following you around the room!". Initially I thought this design was a consequence of sloppy implementation, but then I found that opinion to be seconded by acoustic bass players, too.
If their fiddles require reinforcement they prefer a very quick, rolled-off monitor over a more extended one that is slovenly or overhangingly "ripe". "Don't worry...all you have to hear are the harmonics; your mind will fill in the fundamental." is their rejoinder.
Along this point I have to say that my system PRaT improved
MUCH more when listening to a 3-way speaker with a very fast, tight woofer (Verity Audio) than with others less
"coherent" temporally (Nautilus 803, for example); the effect of the Neuance seems to be to improve the snap of the midrange/treble instead.
I remember how surprised I was when demoing an ARCAM 9 last year: MUCH less rythmic than my old Rotel 855! Why was this?
The Rotel has a much older, simpler DAC, but indeed a beefier transport. Sure the ARCAM sounded cleaner, smoother, more detailed, and bloomier, but certainly possessing less PRaT! Now I wonder if the Neuance could do wonders for an FMJ23?....
So it's becoming clear to me that jitter-reduction, for example, is a component in preserving music's temporal integrity, but only in the context of excellent loudspeaker transducer impulse and phase response as a prerequisite!
"If ya can't dish it out right you might as well not heat up the stove" or some other lame analogy.... Good night, guys.

Hi Red!
Yes, simplicity in that it uses a single midrange driver without networks! If the impulse response is at least decent you have a chance of getting reasonable sound.
When asked what loudspeakers impressed him the most, the ex head designer at the old AR (now at EAR pro sound) related how shocked he was to hear a reasonably-optimized enclosure housing a simple full-range Radio Shack 5" driver back in the 80s! He had heard a male voice call out, and thinking there was someone behind him, turned around to "see" this
simple box sounding so utterly natural. He then went on to explain his design preference for midrange drivers with big voice coils that could be run wide. His work with tweaked Morel midranges resulted in AR's last 3-ways before their bustup and emigration from the Right Coast to the Left! (Think it was called the AR-1 or something).
OTOH I wonder if presence-region and treble detail of flat freq response systems simply "grabs" the attention of the ear-brain's high sensitivity, somehow masking the ease of
PRaT-ful boogying. Nah...that can't be right: the ARCAM 9 can sound clean and clear as a whistle, but dances with two left feat! My old Rotel's dirty as hell, but keeps time like
a Third Reich brownshirt brigade...or Charlie Watts!

Nice pace to your last post, Red!
To recap (esp for Sean), I don't believe having AMPLE bass has anything to do with enabling PRaT--usually quite the opposite! It's the high frequency cues from the transients
that signal the ear-brain timing sensoria, no? To the extent that bass fundamentals that develop somewhat later in the harmonic envelope are kept in proper time with their leading transients affects our perception of good PRaT. As it turns out it's easier to design for tight bass response of less amplitude and extension (2-way monitors, especially unported or port-tuned fairly high) than with 3-ways or sub/sat systems, where separate drivers and their associated crossovers, big cabinets, slow-moving larger masses, etc., conspire to lower octaves' "lag" and what we call poor PRaT.
I've heard doubters state that "fast" bass response is nothing but lean bass response. Not necessarily...and that's what I like so much about my current speakers: an exceptionally fast woofer that simply doesn't lag its exceptionally fast mid (VA Parsifal Encores).
How PRaT varies in a digital product I don't even pretend to understand! Anybody shed some light here? Happy 4th! Ern