Amp "timing" ?

I'm not so sure that "timing" is the best adjective. Perhaps it refers to the ability of an amp to handle transient spikes in conjunction with damping factor to present an accurate representation of the original performance. But I'm just speculating here. Play on....

" PRAT are the most basic building blocks of a musical performance ". TNT audio...…..I personally came to the realization of it in the late 60s, but in my circle, it was Pace, Rhythm, Attack and Timing. I was a Linnie, and all gear was either good at it, or not. Make fun if you will....as always, to each his own.....Enjoy ! MrD.

If you don't believe in PRAT, all you have to hear is a SLI-80 in comparison with VSI75. SLI-80 is slow in both directions, rise and decay and the decay is especially wrong, as in it hangs too long, too loud and then just stops. And that basically breaks everything, but especially sound staging. VSI75 is wide and deep, SLI80 is flat. I still have one SLI80 and it's a great background music piece, precisely because the PRAT is all wrong.

Comparing two power amplifiers I owned many years ago.: A Dynaco 410, and a GAS Ampzilla. Through any loudspeaker I owned at the time ( Klipsch Lascala; Dahlquist DQ10; Martin Logan CLS; AR3, and a pair of JBL monitors, ) the Dynaco was slow and ill defined compared to the Ampzilla. Although some tube amps sounded good on the Klipsch, they did not have prat. All the amps were " as new " from the manufacturers and had been "broken in ". I still feel tube amps have a problem in this area ( lets keep the attacks down please ). I have owned some beefy ss power amps that have " grip ", so to my ears, this is ime. If a system shows signs of anemic bass quality ( slow and ill defined ), I will move on. Sorry if I made anyone ( wolf ) cry. Enjoy ! MrD.

I have read about ’speed’ and ’timing’ in regard to components and could not get my head around what that meant. Probably neither are very good terms.

@jctf said:

"I have heard it myself when trying various tubes."

I’m a new audiophile with limited experience. But just last night I changed tubes in my AR LS-16 preamp with some tubes rodman99999 sent me to try out. My immediate impression was that everything sounded more laid back and the music did sound ’slower’ which I knew was not possible. It was really a shocking impression and I still don’t know how to describe it. Maybe it has to do with stridency. I don’t know.

The point being, I now have a understanding of what some folks might be trying to say and just don’t have good enough words to say it.