Is "detailed" audiophile code for too much treble?

ffed,” or “smeared” is what you hear when you go into the venue’s bathroom
 

That’s because the higher frequencies have been lost and only the lower remain. 

Bottom line is higher frequencies are an essential part of detail. They can also be a key source of noise and distortion which lead to fatigue.   It all is needed and all needs to be done well ie have a handle on noise and distortion.  After that it’s largely a matter of tuning to personal preference. 

It only means what people think the word describes. There are some who seem to equate lots of detail and transparency with a bright sound. But many don’t. There’s no definitive answer.

Some people say a highly detailed system is a little bright. Think of the opposite, a warm or lush sound. Wouldn’t that at least imply a loss of detail? So it’s just words that people assign to their own understanding of sounds. Some words have almost universal agreement, some don’t.

If you think about it, a flat frequency response SHOULD provide the most detail because if you have a dip in the response you loose detail through that area, and if you have a peak, you mask detail in other areas.

If you have a flat response to "beyond hearing" it will sound bright because most people are used to hearing "rolled off" highs.

^^^ But since human hearing is not flat, a flat response could yield all kinds of lows and highs a particular listener does not want.

To answer OP’s question, I think of detail as the ability to hear distinct sounds in the program material. Like when I upgraded my audio interface to film capacitors in the analog stages, and suddenly I could hear sounds I didn’t know existed. I could hear the timbre of a wood-bodied instrument, such as a cello. I could hear the ugly sound of guitar strings rattling against one of the forward frets, even though I was pleased to actually be able to hear such a detail. It is in fact a caveat to have a detailed (read that: revealing) system because it shows you when a recording is truly bad.

I don't see why a bright system is associated with detail.  It's a different phenomenon in my opinion.  I think Sennheiser HD's of various models are bright sounding, but this doesn't give them any increased ability to be detailed.  I'd say the equipment behind is has greater affect on detail.