What exactly is PRaT???

I’ve got 53 years in the hobby since I bought a pair of Advents and I still don’t understand the term. I don’t think it’s very useful.

While, in general, I don’t like McGowen’s PRaTel, he certainly acknowledges its existence in the video. So, I agree with him. What he doesn’t talk about is how to sense it. I think it is about the hardest of the attributes to sense (although once you finally get it, it is easy). He alludes to the symptoms of good PRaT, but not what it sounds like.

It is not like detail. In detail, to sense it you collapse your focus of attention to individual sounds with in the sound field… like the tick of a drumstick or a bowed violin and listen intensely. If you are concentrating on bass, you tend to open up your focus of attention because bass is less directional. PRaT is more a function of a very large part of the sound field. To sense it close your eyes and sense the draw or connection to the rhythm. For me, it all came to me at once when I was listening to a system with great PRaT and memories of auditions of several past systems that had emotionally tugged at me (syrupy tube systems) but were unappealing for other shortcomings. That is when it came together. It is like a gestalt attribute produced across the sound field and the symptoms of it are the foot tap and desire to move (if only in your head).

It can take a long time so sense it. Highly contrasting systems can really help. Audition a solid state Luxman / Magico system then a Conrad Johnson or VAC / Sonus Faber system. The former is virtually devoid of PRaT the latter very rich with it. A Pass / DynAudio system is likely to be in the middle.

Hopefully this is helpful.

I have always fancied, however erroneously, that PRAT was often due to very slightly erratic timing which is why tube amps sometimes can be masters of PRAT perhaps because something in some tubes is faintly "off" timing wise. This in turn might create a sense of naturalness or "live" performance even if the tunes have been very precisely guided in the studio.

Sometimes PRAT can be that ineffable thing called "swing."  SRV nearly always had it in his playing.

The Stones often made Pratty records perhaps because of their catch-as-catch-can recording practices.

The Stones Recording At Muscle Shoals Part1

The Stones Recording At Muscle Shoal Part2

I'm not sure what's so confusing about it.  Audio systems are a combination of mechanical devices that work together to reproduce that elusive thing called music.  There are well-made devices and badly-made devices.  There are devices that work well together and devices that don't.  A Chevy Geo isn't going to give you the same driving experience as a Ferrari.  A speaker with woolly, sluggish bass and misaligned drivers isn't going to convey the speed and accuracy of your drumming very well, is it?  Likewise, an amp with poor transient response is going to fail to do that.  I'm sure you don't need to be told that pace, rhythm and timing are essential qualities in a good musical performance, whether it's a Haydn trio or a Steely Dan song.  I think "PRAT" is just a short-hand way of saying that a certain piece of audio equipment, or a combination of them, conveys those qualities (or the lack of them) effectively.  (AFAIC, not all the system PRAT in the world can make "Jazz at the Pawnshop" sound like an Eddie Condon group.)  I think it's also a shorthand way of saying that a system conveys the emotional qualities of a performance.  A system doesn't have to do EVERYTHING perfectly--any system is going to have limitations of some sort--but if it conveys the essentials it can still provide more enjoyment than a far more expensive and unwieldy system that doesn't.

I've been in this hobby a long time too, and I've heard systems that DON'T convey the joy of music.  And if you've ever spent any time building your own amps, preamps or speakers, it's not difficult to understand how easy it is to get it wrong.

@tunehead Provides the only realistic answer. Dirk and Lerxst approved.