Two terms I don't understand - please explain


Hello...

I've read through this forum as well as forums on other sites and there are two (2) terms that I don't understand: "Slam" and "Prat" when discussing turntables, cartridges, etc.

Could someone kindly explain to this idiot what they actually describe?

Thanks and regards,

Jan
jsmoller
"and perpetuates the widespread belief that audiophiles are a bunch of tweaks that don't know what they're talking about."

would that be the part about belt drives not having prat or dvd players that lose the beat?
JUST FYI- Martin Colloms(Who happens to have an Electro-Acoustics Engineering Degree, as they call them in England, has authored a number of AES papers and books on speaker design,etc) is credited with coining the term, "pace". Here are his views on the topic: (http://www.hificritic.com/downloads/Archive_A7.pdf)
Rodman, thanks for the great link. I think almost all the PRaT or Pace attributes come down to either Timing (as defined in that article) and Dynamics. This still leaves me uncomfortable with either term. It's interesting that neither "Pace" or "PRaT" include a letter for dynamics. That article talks a good bit about the importance of dynamics.

His definition of Timing was particularly lucid and really dealt with the issue of how micro timing sometimes doesn't come thru. The example of the bass player being ahead of the beat (the good ones actually do that by training in certain circumstances) and the inability of a couple of CDPs to reproduce that was right on point.

Dave
I figured I'd let the dust settle B4 letting the originator define his own terms(more fun that way). Happy toe-tapping!