Reactions between heavy-ions at various energy regimes produce many nuclear fragments which can be populated in highly excited states. The study of these fragments, detected at the end of their particle decay, is important to investigate nuclear forces and structure effects. In recent years there have been many efforts to extend these studies towards the drip-lines, i.e. to systems far from the β-stability valley, by using accelerated radioactive beams. The development of such infrastructures is accompanied by the development of more powerful detectors and associated electronics, capable to identify ions with very different sizes and kinetic energies. Here we give two examples which show how advanced arrays can contribute to the studies on nuclear phenomena. The examples come from the European FAZIA collaboration and from recent campaigns with the GARFIELD apparatus, the latter in operation at the INFN Legnaro Laboratory (Italy) where the SPES RIB facility is under construction.