@soix After four pages of discussion, I am pretty sure Agoners can’t help you with this, unless they are a Buddhist monk or a licensed psychologist. Hopefully you will continue keeping the beat as you play and listen to music - Happy New Year.
kn
What exactly is PRaT???
Ok, it’s like this thing and is associated with “toe tapping” and such. I confess, I don’t get it. Apparently companies like Linn and Naim get it, and I don’t and find it a bit frustrating. What am I missing? I’m a drummer and am as sensitive as anyone to timing and beats, so why don’t I perceive this PRaT thing that many of you obviously do and prize as it occurs in stereo systems? When I read many Brit reviews a lot of attention goes to “rhythm” and “timing” and it’s useless to me and I just don’t get it. If someone can give me a concrete example of what the hell I’m not getting I’d sincerely be most appreciative. To be clear, enough people I greatly respect consider it a thing so objectively speaking it’s either something I can’t hear or maybe just don’t care about — or both. Can someone finally define this “thing” for me cause I seriously wanna learn something I clearly don’t know or understand.
- ...
- 180 posts total
@knownothing I agree. Nothing anyone has said here has helped or made any sense to me whatsoever — I just don’t get it, but that’s ok. At this point I’m thinking it’d take a direct A/B comparison between good and bad PRaT systems to get it through my head cause words ain’t cutting it and this seems more like a “feel” thing that needs to be heard to be understood. Anyway, in the meantime I guess I’ll just be like those who say they can’t hear a difference between streamers and go forward in happy ignorance. 😜 |
Sorry nothing we have said helps. But as I am sure I have mentioned, it is not easy to hear... took me a long long time. And it has nothing to do with drums or timing at a macro level. It is across the sound field. It is something that I read about and just plain did not perceive for several decades. Then one day I put together different experiences across time and I got it. After that, like some of the more nuanced variables... it is obvious and becomes un-hearable. You are curious... one day... it will probably hit you.., and you’ll go, "OH! that’s it!" Keep at it. |
Well I’m no monk but I recently put together a Harbeth and Naim system. I can say this combination did something in the ’feel’ sense that I’ve always read about. There was a certain veil that was lifted without the system being aggressive in any way. Typically when I’d put together a "musical" system by the standard agreement of many audiophiles (or higher percentage) I’d miss some of that bite or grunge when the music called for it. Also when I would look for a larger presentation than a system could offer (with such a small speaker) I would miss that scale. So for me I got the "sense’ or "feel" that everything was good even though all recordings became listenable. Even though the scale was a bit smaller. So it was less compromise and more like, Yes, this system can do it really well! As far as Pace, rhythm and timing, maybe it has to do with a smaller, tighter speaker that relies a bit more cabinet for the presentation? Anyway, it led to some louder listening and lots of enjoyment. I did use a sub at times because they don’t dig deep. Even that was okay most of the time (not really missed much). So to me the prat was to make the experience all around musical without lacking any of the things that a lesser experience can frustrate us with (and there are many). Hopefully this helps, and yes the toe tap was there. I’ve since parted with this system because I didn’t like where the monitors were positioned relative to traffic pattern in the room. I don’t like risking damage of nice gear being knocked over. I also just like to try new gear if I have the opportunity to do so with minimal loss. Glad I tried this. |
- 180 posts total