Perplexed !

Posted by: markjp on 10 January 2002

As a relative newcomer to this forum I have learnt a lot about Naim gear in recent weeks but please can someone tell me what is PRaT and Flat earth ???

thanks

Mark

Posted on: 10 January 2002 by David Quigley
PR&T = Pace, rhythm and timing

Flat Earth I would guess is going to be argued about. My take is that flat earthers care more about PR&T and less about a huge soundstage with musical instruments placed in various positions.

Naim is viewed as high on PR&T. Naim buyers are referred to as flat earthers by some.

Posted on: 10 January 2002 by Martin Payne
for your interest, Flat Earth was originally a derogatory term.

Everyone with any sense knows the Earth is round. Those who believed in the Naim sound were compared with those who believed in a flat Earth. I.E. wrong.

Makes me wonder - does anyone know who first coined the term Flat Earth in this context?

cheers, Martin

Posted on: 11 January 2002 by Steve B
quote:
does anyone know who first coined the term Flat Earth in this context?

I think this phrase was coined when the 'Flat Response' mag was published. This mag strongly favoured Linn/Naim/Rega and (at least it seemed like) rubbished just about everything else on the market.

'Flat Earthers' was probably coined by someone from one of the competing mags at that time.


Steve B

Posted on: 11 January 2002 by Martin Payne
quote:
Originally posted by Steve B:
I think this phrase was coined when the 'Flat Response' mag was published. This mag strongly favoured Linn/Naim/Rega and (at least it seemed like) rubbished just about everything else on the market.

'Flat Earthers' was probably coined by someone from one of the competing mags at that time.


Ah, now I'm dissapointed.

I'd always thought (with hindsight) that the mag was called Flat Response as a jibe a round-earthers.

Still, your story makes much more sense. frown

cheers, Martin

Posted on: 11 January 2002 by herm
hit search

Mark,

there's a search box, below right in the Hifi Corner. Type Flat Earth, and you'll find a couple of illumnating threads.

Flat Earth = source (LP or CD) first rather than superfantastic speakers; rythmic acuity rather than sound stage representation; in short: Naim.

You'll find out.

Herm

Posted on: 12 January 2002 by Paul Ranson
quote:
I'd always thought (with hindsight) that the mag was called Flat Response as a jibe a round-earthers.

To quote from the first editorial in the first issue of TFR,

"You must have heard of the phrase 'flat-earthers', as applied in hi-fi circles. My own inevitably biased view of this is that it is a description used by the manufacturers and users of inferior products to describe those who make and use products superior to theirs. But I suppose I would say that, I'm a flat-earther after all!

Trouble is, if I'm a flat-earther, then all I can say is that I've looked over the edge of the world - an unthinkable premise for those of other beliefs - and I have to say that I liked what I saw. So, I think I'd rather stay as I am."

Chris(t) Frankland, March/April 1984.

Those were the days.

Paul

Posted on: 12 January 2002 by Peter C
I thought the term Flat Response refers to the ideal response of Hi-Fi.

When you see reviews of say speakers they will show its frequency response between 20hz-20,000hz.

The ideal is a straight line, hence the aim of the Flat Response magazine and hi-fi to achieve a flat response to produce music.

Posted on: 12 January 2002 by Paul Ranson
quote:
I thought the term Flat Response refers to the ideal response of Hi-Fi.

It does. But not in the context of 'The Flat Response' where it's a pun. Check out here for an archive of most of the magazine.

Paul

Posted on: 12 January 2002 by Martin Payne
quote:
Originally posted by Paul Ranson:
Quote: "I thought the term Flat Response refers to the ideal response of Hi-Fi."

It does. But not in the context of 'The Flat Response' where it's a pun. Check out http://www.flatresponse.net for an archive of most of the magazine.

Paul


Not least because these guys probably didn't give a fig for a flat frequency response. Bigger fish to fry.

cheers, Martin

Posted on: 13 January 2002 by Paul Ranson
'Flat earthers' believe the earth is flat. It obviously isn't, so as a term it comes to mean those blindly holding onto a faith in the face of an obvious truth. Popes and Inquisitions would have been early flat earthers.

In the hifi microcosm it was obvious that the latest Absolute Sounds imported monstrosity was better at 'hifi' than the British cottage industry stuff, the latest Koetsu cartidge with arbitrarily chosen exotic materials would obviously be better than whatever was the current Linn product. The people who declared the emperor was nude became 'flat earthers' and got fired by Haymarket.

The rest is history.

And unfortunately the hifi earth has been declared round. Reading the Allae issue of Hifi World I see they have reviewed 3 interconnects at between 200 and 400 quid. This is just taking the piss snake oil peddled by the modern Popes and purple robed unexpecteds.

Paul