Replacing speakers in Lat-1's

Generally if the original speaker is a well designed model for its price point, it is not a good idea to just replace drivers. The cabinet should have been designed to match the characteristics of the woofer for low frequency extension, compliance, efficiency and so on. Similary the crossover needs to match the characteristics of both the woofer and tweeter (and midrange if one).

Putting another driver in place ignores all of these factors. Even if it is "higher quality" driver, the chance that it will match the needed characteristics is simply a shot in the dark.

If you want to learn about speaker design, determine the original design specs and then pick a replacement driver based on that info, your odds of good results will improve. But the relationship between components in a speaker is complex and it is easy to overlook things. You may think you've covered all the bases and still find your change is not an improvement.

The key is to treat the speaker as an integrated whole where the parts match each other.

Not unless you know how to rework a crossover network. A designer spends countless hours modeling and testing those exact drivers and crossover parts in that exact cabinet until the desired results are obtained. The sum of ALL parts including the cabinets work together and they all have specific values associated to them. If one decides they like a different brand woofer, mid or tweeter, that alternate driver has a totally different set of T/S parameters and will react differently in the Lat's crossover and cabinet configuration. Most if not all of the time in a negative manner. Crossovers are built very specific to the intended drivers and their placement in the cabinet.

Surely speakers that cost a whopping jar dropping $37k should be awesome already, no?
Then again Krell use cheapo cones (apparently).