Is PRaT real, or just an artifact of something else?

[sluggish]

I know it when I hear it, but do you always have to go flat earth to get it? Is it what's left over when you tighten up the bass but remove ambient detail -- an artifact of highlighting and simplification? Can tubes do it? Can big manly American amps do it? Can speakers with drivers over 8" do it? Why did my LK1/280, which should do it, usually just get on my nerves while my Creek 4240 and Naim Nait (1) also seem to do it, but didn't get on my nerves? Can you have pace and space at the same time? Why does cold Italian food almost always taste good for breakfast while cold Mexican food can be risky? Why does every beer InBev buys end up tasting like urine? WHYYYYYYY?????

[DSJR]

Pr@t often meant no deep bass, screaming upper mid (to emphasize rim-shots) and tinsel for treble..

I dare not comment nowadays, but pr@t is only one aspect of reproduced sound and is a factor of time-smear in drive units, cabinets and passive crossovers where speakers are concerned and maybe odd order distortion coupled with crossover artifacts (yes, even today) in amps.

[Rare Bird]

I know what it means

[Stratmangler]

I know what it means

[Macca]

? Why does every beer InBev buys end up tasting like urine? WHYYYYYYY?????

You need to get into Guinness- or even better, Murphys Stout

[sluggish]

Regarding time-smear ( the elimination thereof) -- maybe I'm being too reductive, but doesn't that basically boil down to good transient response? The center of my confusion here is that ESLs should, by the transient standard, be the darlings of the PRaT set, but they aren't. Big horn dogs like the Kipsch should, too, but they usually sound a little too confused to be a great PRaT speaker. I'd speculate (though very well erroneously) that neither ESLs nor muti-driver horns fully resolve the dynamic picture: the ESL have speed, coherence, and clarity, but lack punch and have energy storage problems due to their nonrigid frames, whereas milti- driver horns punch to burn but have X-over and driver spacing-induced phase problems and large, noisy, underdamped cabinets introducing confusion and spear.

And I can see where tube OPTs would blunt transients, but why do many transistor amps sound comparatively lifeless and slow? Is this an artifact, too? A consequence of soft voicing to please certain consumer expectations?

[Macca]

My take is that PRaT was a marketing ploy to sell speakers that were not capable of reproducing deep bass notes - or even the bottom string on a bass guitar.

[sluggish]

Martin, I had a Stout the other day and it chocolate yumminess was indeed fully intact. But Inbev still has some 'splainin' to do regarding that worcestershire sauce-tasting Draught swill!

[Macca]

But Inbev still has some 'splainin' to do regarding that worcestershire sauce-tasting Draught swill!

What's that then?

[Themis]

I pass.