I think this cabinet is a bit of a no-brainer in the Marshall range, in particular if you own a JCM800, JCM2000, JVM or any Marshall with that kind of aesthetic and you're into the slightly heavier side of the rock genre, and/or metal. Looking amazing it does, but what truly sets this cabinet (and the 1960AV) apart from the other Marshall cabinets is the speakers - which may appear to simply be rebadged Vintage 30s, but they're not. They are certainly in the same family, but they don't sound the same. So you're getting some unique speakers here that you can only buy separately from a shop on Ebay for a pretty penny, and if you're outside of the UK a quad of these is quickly approaching the price of a brand new AV or BV cabinet.
Sure having something a bit more unique is cool and all, but do they sound as good as regular Vintage 30s? In my opinion, they sound quite a bit better. Vintage 30s have an unpleasant upper mid spike and a bit too smoothed out top end for my taste, and by comparison the Marshall Vintages have a more open top end with more sizzle, and a much more balanced frequency response. That may sound like they're closer to a Greenback, but I'm not sure if that's how I'd put it. A Greenback is warmer and less aggressive, while these are more angry and "steely" in the attack, definitely more on the modern side rather than vintage. The whole mid range spectrum comes through better than in any other speaker I've heard, it has what I like to refer to as "crushing mammoth mids".
The cabinet is very well constructed with plywood throughout, no MDF rear panel anymore which is certainly a move in the right direction. The only reason I deducted a star is actually that it is too feature rich, as I really don't see the point in having a PCB with a mono/stereo switch and multiple impedance choices as that is just one more thing that can go south (and from what I have heard, on multiple occasions, has). Running two amps into the same cab never sounds good anyway IME, but I'm guessing perhaps Mesa Boogie guys appreciate the 4 ohm input. Not an impossible thing to fix though, fortunately.
Update 29.01.2025: After a while I realised that these just don't sound as good as their slant counterparts. Not necessarily in the room, but recorded both slants (1960AV and TV) slay all three of the straights (2x 1960BV and 1960BHW) I've auditioned in my home studio. Obviously if you're going to fashion a full stack you need a straight cab, but for literally anything else I would rather go with a slant 10 out of 10 times. The straight looks better, but that's it - and we're not in the furniture business, are we...
