Ritter, today there are a wider variety of materials used for drivers. CAD has gotten far more sophisticated. And the biggest change you can make when swapping out speakers is to go for something with a wildly different design theory. Vandersteen only uses first-order crossovers, to lower or eliminate phase error (I can't listen to speakers like Focal myself because of their steep crossovers, they sound really unnatural to me). Some designers go with all metal drivers, others with balsa wood, silk or doped paper for their drivers to change dispersion, improve off-axis response and (again) lower or eliminated phase error as the driver moves back to its resting position. Many listeners discover that they prefer open baffle, planar, omnipolar or dipole designs.
It is definitely to your benefit to go to a few shops and listen to a variety of setups. Maybe you could make it to AXPONA next year, it would be well worth your trouble!