In full agreement w/ Erik & others, speaker placement / room interactions can greatly affect this. Unfortunately, few of us have dedicated listening rooms where we can position our speakers exactly where we like them to be & also treat the room w/ in various ways. The speaker width apart & subsequent toe in can greatly affect upper midrange & high frequency harshness or hardness depending upon speaker & driver design.
Funny story: I was in high school in 1974 & bought w/ my hard earned $, my first hifi w/ original Large Advents Pioneer 939 receiver (70 watts / side - lot back then!, BIC turntable ( piece of junk w/ good design & terrible build quality). I set it up in my bedroom first w/ the speakers horizontally on reinforced wall shelves & wasn’t happen w/ the sound. It was uneven & a harsh .I had heard them sounding much better in a very nice stereo store. I then got cinder blocks, put the speakers vertically on them about a foot off the floor. My best friend family owned a good carpet store & he brought me about 20 large carpet samples ( about 2’x3’ & Karastan thick wool!) & screwed them into the walls & ceiling here & there. Voila! Magic! I then bought a second pair of Advents & stacked them! Obviously, my house was the place to get high & listen to music for all my friends. I’m not sure if my Mom ever came upstairs into my room throughout high school fortunately!

