Why isn’t more detail always better?

@toddalin.... The magic being they're dipoles?  I own 2 pairs of the 'big' versions, so no new news there.... ;)

The mods applied to the plate structures ( L+R ) and the top and bottom recesses is nice, tho'.  Cleans up their appearance, the bottoms being dust traps...

Any audible differences from that?  Is that a diy or an 'off the shelf' mod, available from where/who?  Spouse is still without clue for my Xmas 'surprise' ( Hers' being a Kindle Paperwhite, after leaden hints....)

A line array of the above amt drivers could be outrageous, but if driven to that level of desire and intent, I'd opt to a pair of 2 of the Newform R45's....pricey, but in line with that level of intent.....

Newforms' are rare to be seen for sale......not a dipole by design, but one could circumvent that with the application of mo' money....as usual....*l*

@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?

At first, I was thinking of the complexity of a cybal's shimmer. More detail = definitely better. Could never be too much.

After listening to my current stereo, which is low detail, I realized that too much detail can be distracting and takes me away from the music. Do I want to hear a cymbal shimmer or feel the emotions of the musicians playing, for example.

Detail has to be defined first.  Detail to me is Resolution.  Nothing wrong with seeking higher resolution in music.  The most important factor in music is rhythm, pace, timing of sound.  Without it, there is no music.  Next one can choose from an assortment of preferences, tonal balance, warmth/body, openness/3 dimensional sound, transient response (leading/trailing edge speed), frequency response, etc. etc.  

I prefer a reproduction of sound which is emotionally connecting me to the music.  So, detail/resolution is by it's nature potentially exploring the minutiae of a performance, the subtleties of the performance which engage both my emotion and intellect.  The purpose of listening to music for me is to connect to it emotionally first though, so resolution is a byproduct of better music reproduction.  I listen to much acoustically recorded music (pre-1925) and often connect to the performance despite the rudimentary recording quality.  I just heard a Suzanne Adams 1902 recording on the Marston CD label that blew me away in it's sound quality.  Almost sounded like she was in the room singing to me (I do have excellent high end gear).