Yes they do sound much better. Used way better parts on the crossovers, they opened up like crazy. Bass not as boomy due to a much larger magnet and thicker surround.
Midrange is actually very very good now, great separation of the instruments. But the same tweeter which is not bad, but if you know d9's not the greatest.
They took several hundred hours to really blossom, as about %90 of the caps/ resistors/ coils in xovers were all new much higher quality parts. I am very happy with them. They are stupid loud. But dont seem to have fatigue,as they are so much better sounding and not as bright on loud music. Mostly metal. Sodom, celtic frost, venom, raven, tank etc etc! My new energy rc-70's are extremely wicked sounding, i could not be happier, they replaced ........ahem...cough.. Bic dv-84's. So from a extremely bright speaker to the much warmer rc-70 is quite the change. But waaaay less fatigue when listening.
I must say the bic's are very good speakers. They took a long time to break in the tweeter, but do sound great. If they had had a midrange, nothing would touch its sound quality imho, even at the 5000 range. But with 2 8" and tweeter and 2 8" passives. And for 250 pair shipped. What do you expect. I know they use all vifa drivers which are great. If they only had a midrange, i would be hard pressed to find a better speaker, ever