ED Frias (EFE) BIC America modified speakers

Hi,
Based on the discussion on this and other forums years ago I bought two BIC America DV-62CLRS speakers from Ed Frias, modified by him. They had great reviews and I don't regret investing in them. They had opinion of $2000 speakers for $400 at the time. The warmth and stage imaging is amazing.
Recently I decided to expand to a home theater setup. I contacted Mr. Frias and he said he still does the mods. I decided to buy an additional same speaker for the center channel and two of DV62si bookshelves for surrounds and then to just send the crossovers to him for a cheaper mod.
And then I started to think: I wonder how do they stack up to new models of other speakers on the market these days? The quality sound got a lot cheaper currently. I have no other speakers to compare with, maybe you guys do? I haven't bought them yet, maybe upon your recommendation I will decide to buy new speakers instead. One thing my BICs lack in are the looks - boy, are they unattractive looking! Plain, "old" looking boxes. I use them for music and movies. They are great for both.
So, what do you think? Can you get better sound for say $600 (or so) per pair these days?