My real OB speaker project

Yeah, the Voxativs are really good in that regard and strike a great balance between sounding too forward and sounding too laid-back. There are widebanders without whizzer cones which sound too laid-back and many widebanders with whizzer cones either don't sound very smooth at all (to put it mildly) or they sound disjointed and too laid-back in the case of vintage widebanders with smaller whizzer cones.
Plus even in 2023 I haven't heard one that is as resolving as the Voxativs.

However after building Hathor I realized that it can get somewhat annoying at times.
There are likely multiple factors. I'll try to sort them in order of importance:

1. Rear radiation.
   The rear radiaton of the Amon doesn't sound very pleasant and it does color the sound a bit.
   
   
2. More upper midrange energy compared to Hathor.
   Simply put, Hathor has a tonality that never gets annoying. However it's also too nice sounding sometimes. Hathor also has more bass and upper treble energy, pulling the focus away from the upper midrange.
   
   
3. Distortion is lower in the bass than the upper midrange.
   Once again bringing focus on the upper midrange.
   
   
4. Phase response.
   There's some excess phase where the main cone transitions to the whizzer cone. Think of it as an asymmetrical crossover that is very shallow for the low pass and steeper for the high pass. In my experience this always pulls some attention to itself. Hathor is minimum phase, so there's no excess phase in the audio band.
   
   
5. Directivity.
   There's some widening around 2-3kHz with the Amon. It's minor and I don't think it plays too much of a role here, but I think it's noteworthy.
   
   
6. Cables.
   I'm using silver cables for the Amon and tinned copper for the Hathor. This alone should make quite a difference.

Of course it's also a matter of getting used to the speakers. I gotta admit I've actually been listening to the Hathor more than Amon, lately. Part of me likes the precise hard-cone presentation, while still managing to sound nicer overall. Another reason is that after all these years of living with the Amon I just wanted a different presentation.

Most importantly it gets pretty close in resolution and surprisingly also microdynamics, despite the 85dB sensitivity. At least it does so with the Ragnarok. Imaging is comparable, similar even. Of course Amon has major advantages in the overall "scale" of the sound, etc.