It took me a while until I fully understood that the biggest impact on your sound is not the guitar, nor the amp, not the microphone, or some  magic EQ in post - it is the speaker!

I tuely believe that I could achieve a wider variety of sounds with 4 different cabs and one amp, compared to four different amps and one cab.

I can  for example make my BF era Fender Deluxe Reverb sound like a Marshall using the right 4x12 cab - no kidding!

This is the reason why I own so many cabs.

There is so much confusing information out there on cabs and speakers but over the years I was able to find my way through the loudspeaker jungle!

Myth 1: old speakers must not necessarily sound superior, new speakers must not necessarily sound bad

Myth 2: w/o a reference or a comparison you cannot really judge if the cab is good or not. I use the ampete for this, a shootout never gets old!

Myth 3: G12-75W celestions are not bad. EVH used them during the F.U.C.K. session according to Dave Friedman, if it is good enough for Eddy....

Myth 4: G12-65W celestion had always been good, even before it was known that Robben Ford uses them for his Dumble

There is not really a good or bad speaker imho. Maybe a speaker is used in the wrong environment or with wrong expectations or is simply not fit. It helps to tighten the screws on a cab, all of them,  and eventually resolder the connections and check on the phase. Speakers change their sound over the years so not all speakers in a 4x12 sound the same.

I mainly use a 73 Checkerboard Marshall cab with 30W GB Pulsonics for recordings. My 2nd fav is a 77 Orange 4x12 cab with 30W Blackbacks. Although the Blackbacks are known to be the "AC-DC speakers" I use them for clean sounds quite a bit. My 3rd fav cab is a 87 Marshall SJ 1960B cab with 75W speakers in it. For some occassions I "dare" to use a 1962 Vox 2x12 cab with Blue Bulldogs and a Marshall 4x12 from 68 (the white one) with 20W Greenbacks. Since a Plexi i.g. is capable of throwing out 120-140W max you need to be very cautious with older speakers. This is why I use the Aracom to tame the amps and/or use the ampete to add another cab which simply burns a few watts extra so the old speaker is protected a little better.

If you want to go deep on this topic please visit Brian Hardings webpage bygonetones