What exactly is PRaT???

While I understand where our friend, above, "actor, singer, stage director and audiobook narrator" is coming from, the acronym’s origins are different.

They were brilliantly marketed (perhaps coined, I don’t know) many decades ago by the owner of Linn to promote the sound of the Linn / Ittok TT + Naim amplification combo. The idea was to point to what those devices did well, excluding everything else (where they were mediocre).

The sound was somewhat mid-bass heavy, with mediocre resolution by today’s standards, but with very coherent mid-range restitution.
The overall sonic result was pleasant (my opinion - I used to have that combo).

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.

Bias a tube amp a little low in mA and you’ll hear sluggishness that is moving toward lower prat. 
 

while I like OP’s binary approach to how a system sounds (does it right or not), I think if you go back and relisten to what’s working and what’s not, you’ll find sometimes a system has great soundstage, imaging, etc But it’s still falling into the not doing it for you bucket. That might be a lack of prat. 
 

some folks just here things differently—like OP’s view on Klipsch.  To me, they can be good rock speakers but some Klipsch offerings can convey delicate pieces and dynamics in a way that makes others sound brutish. Yet, OP hears “in your face”.

one may never hear things and that’s a blessing or maybe a curse.   Not sure.  

@gregm Ivor Tiefenbrun was a brilliant marketer for sure. He took the essence of British Hi-Fi and translated that into words to get awareness in the US market. I think Linn's products back in the 70s and 80s were not so different from other audio components from the UK, but the main difference was that Ivor created a "philosophy" to describe what that British Hi-Fi sound did well.

He got what many engineers miss about marketing. It's about trying to sell your strengths, not covering up all weaknesses.

My perception at the time when the phrase first appeared was that it was an anti spec approach to SQ evaluation.

Back then perceived quality of all audio components was based on spec analysis.