Its hard enough building a really satisfying music system without making things even harder by choosing components that narrow your choices and flexibility. You don't have to have owned a pair to understand this. I even get the impression from your post that you do understand this. And you are right to be concerned.
Maybe you heard Martin Logans at the old Magnolia HiFi. Couldn't have been Hawthorne, unless they were used, and I don't recall Definitive carrying ML they tend to go with worse hyper-technical hi-fi sounding everything. Or who knows somewhere else. Point is, if in those 5 minutes you fell head over heels in love that would be one thing. Instead it sounds like the ones you love are the ones you have.
Which is great. You built them, so you know what you got. Almost certainly if you look at them critically you will easily be able to find several, maybe even a whole bunch, of little things you could tweak to make better. Better wire, or wire geometry. Better caps. Better material or reinforcement here or there. Maybe relocate the crossovers outside the cabinet. Whole long list of little tweaks. Even a few of which are likely to have your already impressive speakers singing even better.
Take it from a guy who had a magical pair of speakers and regrets ever letting them go. You ever get lucky enough to find yourself with a diamond, you'll do a lot better to polish the rough edges than go hunting another diamond.
Maybe you heard Martin Logans at the old Magnolia HiFi. Couldn't have been Hawthorne, unless they were used, and I don't recall Definitive carrying ML they tend to go with worse hyper-technical hi-fi sounding everything. Or who knows somewhere else. Point is, if in those 5 minutes you fell head over heels in love that would be one thing. Instead it sounds like the ones you love are the ones you have.
Which is great. You built them, so you know what you got. Almost certainly if you look at them critically you will easily be able to find several, maybe even a whole bunch, of little things you could tweak to make better. Better wire, or wire geometry. Better caps. Better material or reinforcement here or there. Maybe relocate the crossovers outside the cabinet. Whole long list of little tweaks. Even a few of which are likely to have your already impressive speakers singing even better.
Take it from a guy who had a magical pair of speakers and regrets ever letting them go. You ever get lucky enough to find yourself with a diamond, you'll do a lot better to polish the rough edges than go hunting another diamond.