Newer, by far. Cone materials are far superior, even more so at the lower end of the spectrum. Ditto techniques for reducing varying inductance effects. Better capacitors. Far less cabinet resonances. More consistent dispersion.
all you say is true...however, if behind all that tech you don't put a
engineer with an exceptionally good hearing and musical culture, the
result is a round Zero. This is what happens to many companies...they
focus on tech specs, even the wrong ones probably, aggressive marketing
and fancy design. For those companies sound quality seems the last
priority. In my very limited audiophile experience i know that dynaudio
is one of them. They changed their priorities in 2016. In fact there are almost no happy contour 60 owners
around. It's full of dynaudio fans which praised the old product lines
and which agree the new product lines are a disaster. Despite better
materials, better capacitors, better cabinet design (sure??? My contour
60 sounds like a wooden box emitting sound inside out). If you have a 10K budget for a speaker you can get crazy stuff in the used market.