Why isn’t more detail always better?

@kevn thanks for that very comprehensive and insightful response. Enjoy the music!

Feel like we are talking about 3 different things. 

1. Bloom

2. Overly bright systems

3. Overly detailed

IMHO, they are totally separate, but can also be part of the same issue. My vintage system sounded great to me, my TT was the standout performer, much better overall sound over streaming or radio. Was impressed with my system. 

Then I did a full rebuild on my speaker XO. This was almost a night and day difference. Top to bottom, everything was better. Much more bass, more mid, more high. Everything was cleaner, crisp, more detail. 

After letting everything break in, started to notice more surface noise on certain records, some didn't sound as good, but others sounded so much better. streaming was much better, started to turn down both my bass and treble when streaming. 

After a bit, did a full recap on my pre-amp and amp, along with replacing a ton of ut of spec parts. 

Just like the speakers, while it still had the same sonic signature as before, everything was better. So much more detail, much deeper bigger bass, highs were fatiguing. Good recordings sounded so good! But bad ones were now unlistenable. Some of my old blues records sounded like poo. Now streaming is king, with so much detail that just was not there before. Tone controls are set to +2 bass, and 0 or -1 on treble. Installed a L-pad on my tweeters.

Went through all 3 of these things over about 3 months. Some of it was for the good but some was for the bad. While good recordings sound so much better, with all this added detail, much lower noise floor, so much soundstage, clarity. Lesser recordings are just not listenable anymore. My old setup masked so much, now it just passes everything, the good with the bad. 

My $.02

More detail is a two sided problem. It will bring out all the good of the source material, but will also now overly highlight all the bad in any recording.

Overly bright systems will just give you listening fatigue.  You will miss most of the lower and midrange due to it. Weirdly, after installing my l-pads, there was more bass. Think it was due to the tweeters overpowering the bass, that was there, it was hiding behind all the highs.

Bloom, not sure I totally understand it. I get the "ripple" after hitting a note, but think that is also decay? Never really paid much attention to it, but I do know, piano, and acoustic guitar sound amazing on my system. When there is a quite part of the music, then it hammer in, I've jumped out of my seat a few times. 

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.

I have different setups in different rooms. One smaller room has KEF ls50 meta speakers set up near field. That setup is revelatory when it comes to delivering every last morsel of detail in a recording. The better recordings simply bring the room to life! Totally enthralling! That’s a word I do not toss around very often.  
 

Give near field a chance!

Detail done right, like my Schitt Yggi+ OG DAC is amazing. I think the new SimAudio North Collection amps are getting raves because of the detail but also the natural sound of that detail. They are (almost?) as detailed as the Benchmark AHB2.

I love the RAAL SR1a and the Immanis phones because they are uber detailed. The Immanis being like the North Collection amps with the natural sound. That is why there is a world-wide lineup of buyers to get these phones.

I have been listening to my SR1a phones for the past 4+ hours into the night as I work and there is 0 fatigue. Sound is so good I am not missing my 2-channel.

The KEF LS50 Meta + KEF KC62 sub in a small room is amazing. I liked the wall of sound of the Magnepan LRS+ with the same sub, but it definitely was not as nice sounding as the LS50 Meta. The LRS+ was more interesting sonically with the massive deep soundstage. The only time I did not choose detail.