Functional bikes. Not Porn not Anti

If they're shite, a pads upgrade may not make that much of a difference, I would try and set up your cantis again to make sure you get the most out of it.
Failing that, mini-v as other suggested, or the new Shimano CX cantis that's amazingly easy to set up.

They're calibrated perfectly as far as many tutorials have indicated. I don't want to go for Mini-v's simply because they won't fit. I've already decided on 2.2" with wide guards, so that creates fitting problems I'm hazarding a guess. I'm guessing it's the 15+ year old pads that are the problem.

LX cantis from CRC?

LX Canti's from around 1994!!