Seriously? What could be more essential to the performing arts than pace, rhythm and timing? And what could be more easily comprehensible? Pace is the speed, rhythm is the repetitive beat, timing is the emphasis. Music, stand-up comedy, the stage, film, writing--success in these crafts is largely defined by these three simple but discrete elements. I happen to think that it’s a rather brilliant bit of linguistic compression that captures in one acronym the success or failure of an audio system to convey the essentials of what makes listening to recorded music enjoyable.