A lot of what has been said here—i.e., all things being equal, which of course they never are, an oval or round sound hole archtop may tend to sound a little more open, while an f-hole may tend to project a bit better and be little more “compressed”. But those generalizations are typically overwhelmed by other variables like scale length, bracing style (tone bar versus X), small changes in the depth of the box, wood variety, density and stiffness, to say nothing of the carve and the curve. As players we naturally tend to attribute tone to things we can easily see like wood choice and round-hole versus f-hole, but the builder makes lots of other choices we never see. I once talked to the excellent flattop (and archtop) builder Mark Blanchard about the difference in sound of using some particular tonewood, and he said something to the effect “It would tend to make the sound more X, but there are so many other choices I make that are more important.”
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