I believe I experienced great PRAT for the first time


Pace, Rhythm and Timing - I've often heard about it, mainly in the context of certain turntables, but I don't think I've really experienced it in a highly satisfactory way until today when I mounted my new Soundsmith Hyperion, an upgrade from my Sussorro. Halfway through side two of Stevie Wonder's Original Musiquarium, it suddenly dawned on me that there was more going on than improvements in clarity, detail, neutrality, bass punch and other rather specific traits that I've until this point used to refer to what I'm hearing. For the first time in the 30 years I've had this album, I was struck by a sense of flow, ease, relaxation, and my feet were tapping! Yes, this must be it. I connected with the music at a higher level just now, something new to me. Get all the details correct, and the PRAT appears in front of you. So, this was nothing to do with the fact that my turntable runs at the correct speed with low W/F, as it was performing well at that before. I had assumed that's what PRAT meant. Perhaps it means that too, in a speed stability sense.

earthtones

Congratulations. I think it took me forty years to put my finger on what PRAT was. I knew that my foot was the key. Once I recognized it… how to listen and hear it, I really recognized what high end audio reproduction was about. My system now ARC / Sonus Faber is so musical I have a hard time tearing myself away because the music is so seductive… as opposed to the details being so amazing.

‘PRAT is what should be the primary driver of purchases, but in fact is one of the hardest characteristics to detect and use as a selection criterion in our purchases. Hence one of the reasons so many have amazingly detailed and unmusical systems.

 

Welcome to the world of high end music!

Excuse me, but wasn’t it Tiefenbrun’s (Linn’s) point that turntables create PRAT, not cartridges or anything else in the signal path. So, what turntable? Probably not an LP12. But maybe.

A highly modified VPI classic 4, with the SOTA Eclipse motor and controller upgrade, including an Origin Live belt and an SME 312S arm and Funk Achromat mat, and last but not least, ISO Acoustics Gaia 2 feet. The motor is sitting on two levels of rubber standoffs to eliminate transmitted noise through the highly conductive plinth. The belt I had to run the calculations on and experiment with several belts to get the perfect one down to the millimeter, as the motor is fixed. The reason I bought the table in the first place was that it was relatively cheap way to get a table that would take a 12 inch arm. So, I was able to overcome the severely under engineered design, over a period of several years of frustration as I discovered deficiencies, to provide a great platform to let this new cartridge sing. 

My feet tap to the music not the system. It is great that your transient response and dynamic contrast have improved with your new cartridge but, rhythm and timing belong to the musician.