"Pace", it's importance for enjoyment?

A friend of mine just asked me waht "pace" is. I tried to explain that its subjective, but its universally agreeable. When audiophiles listen to a correctly set up system, we first notice a "pace" presence, and then we get analytical about other factors such as soundstage and detail. But before we get analytical, subjective about the sound, we will concur with the pace. My friend then asked me how pace comes about. I believe it was easier to explain to her house pace is interupted: frequencies of current are not transmitted "harmoniously". Somehow, different frequencies might be disrupted by emi, rfi, vibration, static, different material of inductions, etc so on, tainting the faithful reproduction of sound. She didn't really understand me, so I made up an analogy. If there were ten flutist, and one flutist was out of tune with the others, then the music being produced would be ruined by that one bad flutist. She answered that this is a perception of harmony, rather than pace, which is really true, but, I explained, not in term of stereos. When we talk about pace, we're talking about this snap of things being in place, more than just accurate an tempo or melody. Ok, I am going to invest in some asc tubetraps, sonex room treatments, and those ceramic cable elevators. No emi, echo or rfi is going to get in the way between me and my pace.

Lack of PRAT is what leads to dissatisfied audiophiles. Seeking more detail, more bass, more soundstage, smoother highs, all that stuff, would not drive us to distraction so much if our systems could just "boogie down" regardless of that other stuff - the music would take over.

I believe all components can affect PRAT, as can the quality of the power coming through the wall. There are lots of components that exhibit good PRAT, but much more that don't and so it is just a matter of learning to listen for it.

Dekay raises a very important point as regards vibration. Poor vibration isolation will mean the structure stores energy and releases it slowly, cuasing a smearing of impulses in the time domain. This can destroy PRAT, because our sense of PRAT is incredibly sensitive to very small errors in timing cues.

I have no idea really, but suspect that the PRAT issues with digital are more likely due to phase errors caused in DACs and digital filters than by jitter errors, but that jitter errors can also have an effect, particularly in the rhythmic cues in the upper bass.

If you have ever fiddled with your system and finally hit that point where you feel you have lots of detail, neutrality, dynamics and a decent soundstage - only to find the result boring. Then you have probably not attended to the PRAT issue.

look, whatjd (stupid name, imo), if pace weren't important, why would there be so many manufacturers of pacemakers? duh!

Redkiwi, thanks for briefly summing up what all of my rambling couldn't make clear. Sean
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Maybe to some extent, Redkiwi is correct, that all components effects pace or prat.. blah. However, I do believe pace is more of an issue when it comes to digital front ends. When a turn table is out of tune, or our LPs are warped, or our tape head isn't clean, it doesn't alter the sound as much as when digital front ends are interfered. Sure the sound is warbled, but the bass doesn't become punchy or muddy and the treble doesn't become sibilant.. etc. According to my experience, my nak and luxman tape players on dolby C with a tdk metal tape sounds more dynamic and smoother than any CD player I've heard up until a few years ago. My stereo system doesn't nearly need as much tweaking when usng analog front ends, like my LP player. I still enjoy playing LPs, although I stopped buying LPs back in '89. But, there is something about it that just sounds right. I never had to worry about pace when using analog front ends: I just have to make sure my tape head and needle are clean. Like Sean, I prefer analog sounding systems, so I purchased a tube dac. Sure, the sound is closer to what I get from my LP, but I still prefer the sound coming out of my analog sources, even my tuner, compared to my transport/dac.

On a side note, my first introduction to digital sound were sony discmans. I purchased the second generation discman and a few there after. The first one I got sounded the best, the sweetest, and newer ones sucked cuz of lower build quality. I even had a Luxman first generation CD player. Despite those CD players using old technology, I never had to worry about pace or anything other than keeping my discs clean. Why are newer digital systems harder to use properly?