how do you gauge and judge "timing"?

I trust acoustic concept. PRAT is not one...

 For sure i dont know the English  slang though...

There is no slang in philosophy or science books...

So sorry “PRAT” started right here during the early days of hi-fi in the UK according to @mahgister 

Naim and Linn started something here if the PRAT thing did actually originate from them with a marketing hype in mind. There’s been loads of advertising garbage spilled forth over the years to get an ‘edge” over competitors, to peddle an idea that suggests that their product is better than the others. It’s a question of intelligence or experience to hear and identify if it’s true or not.
 

But the real meaning of a “PRAT” in the UK, long before the hi-fi hype angle can not be disputed….. A simple minded foolish person, or idiot.

Judging hype and knowing what it really is, or just blindly accepting it as true can determine if you are a PRAT.

"At the origin though this concept of PRAT made sense more than nowadays refering to turntable timing accuracy...For sure if you own a turntable you can claim that it gives you PRAT...

but the marketing of turntable cannot be extended  with this expression to describe our sound qualities impression in a system/room only in a very subjective and limited way for sure if you own a turntable ..."

Exactly, We are talking about what may essentially be a "distortion" similar to that of a tube amp. It’s a distortion we can hear and which we happen to find congenial. If turntables have a higher chance of exhibiting PRAT because of groove errrors, groove drag, needle wander and such then it is likely that solid state systems declared PRATTY also exhibit those irregularities, i.e. they are not perfectly rendering the music data. It’s subtle, and it sounds more authentic - like real humans playing with their neurological faults on display.

I think the vast majority of terms used by audiophiles to describe what they are hearing, i.e., imaging, soundstage, detail, transparency, attack/decay, etc, are related to something real, acoustically speaking. 

I have yet to hear an explanation, rooted in acoustics, that could account for one system being more rhythmically accurate than another. 

As far as one system eliciting someone to bob their head or tap their foot with the music, that is much more likely to be other sonic factors, that just cause the individual to be more engaged with the system.

The only timing issues I believe are audible, are drivers being badly misaligned, causing step response, phase and time arrival problems. But these would relate to transient response, imaging/soundstage, vertical/horizontal off axis response issues. 

@simonmoon 

Having had systems that were dull with respect to pace, timing and rhythm as well as systems that were too over the top frenetic sounding there are definite electronic attributes that cause this.  Keep in mind the above was true for each system with the same recording.  

Has nothing to do with speaker driver alignment.  

So how does one system sound dull and anemic while another can sound too fast and frenetic? 

Variables-

Total system voltage gain from source through preamplifier and power amplifier.  

Speaker sensitivity.

System component signal storage capacitor banks.  

Amplifier topology.