Depends on the cab, really – a 1960 cab loaded with V30s is nothing to sneeze at, although it doesn’t quite have the same thump as a Mesa Recto 4x12 due to some slight differences in dimensions/internal volume. Some people swear by a 1960 with two V30s and two of the stock G12T-75s in an X pattern, since the speakers do an OK job of complementing one another. Kristian Kohle has a video somewhere on YouTube where he demonstrates how to get some surprisingly decent studio sounds out of a T-75, but it involves some weird mic phasing tricks. On the other hand, loading one of those cabs with Celestion Greenbacks will cover damn near anything boomer rock-adjacent, right up through early thrash metal.

The MF280 (MF400 for the K100-loaded version) is a fucking monster, and the 8412 (later renamed VS412) is a must if you have a Valvestate 8100, 8200, or VS100H and are chasing some of those later Death album sounds. Funny thing is, in the early 00s, they were still producing a cab with almost the exact same dimensions as the 8412/VS412, but stuck these god-awful hot-garbage-but-not-as-terrible-as-the-MG-series “Avatar” speakers in there. (Note: Marshall’s Avatar shit is not the same as the company that makes those customizable empty cabs.) That was also when they kind of fucked up the sound on the Valvestate line because they somehow interpreted a bunch of greasy metalheads snatching them up to mean “we have to make this sound more like a dad rock amplifier.” The 8412/VS412 version came loaded with Celestion G12L-35s, which lack a lot of the high end clarity/icepick-ness that you get from speakers like the V30, and therefore don’t overaccentuate the hiss and fizz you tend to get out of those old Valvestates.

I can’t speak to their 2x12s or any of the current production (MX/Origin) oddballs, but as long as the cabinet isn’t constructed from literal cardboard, it doesn’t really affect the sound much whether it’s plywood, MDF, or unobtanium virgin birch ply anointed with the sap of a 10,000 year old tree that only grows in a remote section of the Himalayas. (Cheap chipboard could be problematic as baffle material, though.) Regardless, cab construction means fuck all if the speakers sound like shit.