Thom,
We're definitely on the same page about PRaT, sorta what I tried to say in my post criticizing Art Dudley's infatuation. While PRaT can certainly be masked by a stereo, as 4yanx pointed out, most PRaT-loving reviews I've seen are in fact praising inaccurate tonal balance or inaccurate reproduction of leading or trailing edges of transients. A particular inaccuracy may of course sound "better" on some recordings, but it will be insufferable on most others.
The "perfect" stereo would *exactly* reproduce the tonal balance and transient behavior of the recording, and its noise floor too. A component that fails in one or more of these areas will probably mask some of the musicians' PRaT, but focusing on PRaT is indeed focusing on the result, not the cause.
Enjoy the TriPlanar. Here's a tidbit that's not in the manual: the cueing height adjustment also controls the point across the record where antiskate kicks in. Weird, but easy to understand if you look at it long enough. :-)
Sorry to NGeorge for the endless OT, but it seems like a nice conversation!
