Cone is a vast improvement over the drop-in filter.
Flow test by ZZP on different size cones:
227 CFM on 9" long 4" inlet clean K&N
181 CFM on 7" long 3.5" inlet clean K&N
As you can see, the 9x4 is what... a 22.5% improvement over the 7x3.5? and the 7x3.5 is easily an improvement over the stock setup.