Why isn’t more detail always better?

I believe that we should strive for all the detail we can get. If it’s there, we should hear it!

HOWEVER, the area of the band that includes much of the detail also includes much of the "hash/noise/distortion" present in all recordings, to some extent, and a minor loss of detail in this area can make the listening experience more pleasant even at the expense of some detail.

Lowering the noise floor certainly increases perceptible detail.

But you can’t lower the noise floor on poorly recorded material where the noise is part of that material, and in some cases maybe it is better just to "reduce" it a hair to make that noise a bit less objectionable.

I designed my crossovers so that I can easily reduce the "noisy" portion of the band with the flip of a switch/twist of a knob. A bit of detail is lost, but the music becomes more listenable.

Something to consider...

When you hear sounds, music, birds, etc. in the real world, it is typically much further from you than listening to your speakers.

Sound attenuates with distance, and there are two types of attenuation. There is the typical "spreading loss" (e.g., 6 dB per doubling of the distance for a point source), but their is also "atmospheric attenuation" due to the energy being absorbed by the ambient atmosphere. In this case, the higher the frequency, the faster it attenuates.

So listening to music in your living room at 10 feet away from your speakers, or hanging a microphone in front of an amplifier's speaker, is not the same as sitting 40 feet away where you would experience a different frequency balance, not so heavy on the highs, unless the recording was made 40 feet away.

@asvjerry 

The level of detail from a modified Heil is amazing.  But the real magic is happening on the backside, and you can't see it in this picture.

@avsjerry

On the contrary. I think dipoles ruin soundstage and imaging by scattering sound willy-nilly about the room. Mine are blocked off at the backs and the "block-off" is a piece of modeling foam of a very specific size and shape covered with felt that is pushed into the V-notch.

The rear reflection repassed through the front opening interacts with the diaphragm and creates a quasi ~3rd-4th order crossover at ~3,500Hz (regardless of your crossover setting) and instead of the Heil getting louder with frequency, this flattens everything above 3,500 Hz WHERE THE DETAIL LIES to ~12,500 Hz.

Acoustic foam behind that ensures that any stray rear sound is further reduced.

All that stuff on the front is nice. It improves soundstage, imaging, and focus by reducing ceiling/floor bounce, but the magic is in the rear.

https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/im-fixing-a-hole-heil.1025205/

https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/give-me-a-3d-printer-and-who-knows-what-ill-come-up-with.1074212/

Great Heil response curve crossed over at 3kHz.

Modified Heil response curve. It is actually flatter/smoother now with the felts added. Do you see where the detail lies?

What is being said at exactly 4:41? This was asked on another forum and no one could answer until I did, at which point many agreed.

Does your system have the detail so that you can understand this?

https://youtu.be/_dbYxAr697w

I think, define, bloom as an "expansion/increase in that area of the lower midrange where the fundamentals of vocals emanate from."

Furthermore, I think that I could even make a demo showing this effect in real time (i.e., A/B). When I raise the crossover point on the Mermans from ~310 to ~350Hz in the JBL 2241H 18" and boost it by ~1 dB, it really impacts the vocals which come alive and take on a more realistic effect.  I can do this remotely at the flip of a switch for instantaneous comparison.