The largest difference is probably that modern tweeters can operate well at significantly lower frequencies enabling the midrange/tweeter crossover to be lower. In your case the large soft 8" midwoofer just below the tweeter will be resonating strongly over the top few octaves of the passband and this will be audible. Apart from some boutique designs (e.g. retro ones) modern speakers are no longer designed like this and instead will tend to have both a lower crossover frequency and a smaller midrange/midwoofer that will remain pistonic to a higher frequency improving fidelity in the frequency range where the ear is most sensitive.
The difference in sound between the cone material of tweeters is subtle (several manufacturers supply tweeters with pretty much the same motor and alternative hard and soft cones) and almost certainly has more to do with the different radiation patterns rather than ultrasonic resonances.
Your speakers are old and the cost of replacing capacitors, surrounds, tweeters, etc... is likely to exceed the second hand price and then assuming all goes well they will still have a modest technical performance in comparison to decent modern equivalents. I would suggest for the mods to be worthwhile your motivation should be more having fun, learning a bit, restoring speakers you like the sound of even if they are not high fidelity by modern standards,... rather than adding financial value.
'Old' don't necessarily mean 'can't perform' - just ask my wife!
P.S. On second thoughts, don't!
That could be applied to a large number of similar threads on this forum, Dave.
Perhaps you're fed up having to moderate them all!
Thing is, you can easily find yourself happy with crappy. I've been there many times over the years. Until you hear something better you can't even imagine what is possible.
At the moment what impresses me is not outright volume... like people sometimes do with their car stereos... i.e. the louder the better and a boot full of kit is the best...
I'd happily listen blind to a system if somebody told me it was good. Then try to work out if I liked it or not.
For constant listening during the working day... or later in the evening when the kids are in bed... a system that impresses me is one which can still move a bit of air at lower volumes. Some systems only work loud.
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