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What exactly is PRaT???

Ok, it’s like this thing and is associated with “toe tapping” and such.  I confess, I don’t get it.  Apparently companies like Linn and Naim get it, and I don’t and find it a bit frustrating.  What am I missing?  I’m a drummer and am as sensitive as anyone to timing and beats, so why don’t I perceive this PRaT thing that many of you obviously do and prize as it occurs in stereo systems?  When I read many Brit reviews a lot of attention goes to “rhythm” and “timing” and it’s useless to me and I just don’t get it.  If someone can give me a concrete example of what the hell I’m not getting I’d sincerely be most appreciative.  To be clear, enough people I greatly respect consider it a thing so objectively speaking it’s either something I can’t hear or maybe just don’t care about — or both.  Can someone finally define this “thing” for me cause I seriously wanna learn something I clearly don’t know or understand.  

soix

Showing 2 responses by yoyoyaya

yoyoyaya's avatar
yoyoyaya
911 posts
 

@Soix - PRaT is what you get when you engineer a sound that is harmonically lean and emphasises the leading edge of the dynamic envelope. Being a drummer, unless you are a really bad drummer (which I'm sure you aren't), I'm no doubt you are perfectly capable of hearing this if you listen to the kinds of system's favoured by "PRaT" lovers. The term started to be used in the 1980's when Linn/Naim orthodoxy was at it's height in the UK. It started to fall away when a broader range of equipment started to be popular - most of it coming from the USA.

Away from the quasi cultist aspects of this, there is an underlying germ of truth in the sense that some components can be more coherent than others. However, that coherence is exhibited in the reproduction being full frequency and having a natural musical flow i.e. the system is expressing the recording and not superimposing a tailored sonic signature on it.

yoyoyaya's avatar
yoyoyaya
911 posts
 

Good summary Gregm. The irony is that the the LP12 of the mid eighties had dreadful micro timing stability due to the movement of the subchassis/armboard relative to the platter. Linn's mantra was pitch and rhythm. I have a feeing it was the journalists at The Flat Response magazine that converted that into PRaT.

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