One other thing I am learning about the EVM speakers.....the cab matters! There is a reason why people who use EV's, along with Zack Wylde's roadies, complain about the heavy weight of the EV's. The cabs themselves have to be made for it. Maybe 5 years ago I bought a solid pine and birch plywood 1x12 box made with dovetail joints, beautiful and seemingly solid in every detail. Every speaker I put in that box sounded pretty darn good, Webers, Eminences, Jensens, Celestions.......but when I put the EVM12L in it, the thing just couldn't handle it. If I cranked my amp up loud (a 30 watt amp into a 150 watt 15 pound speaker) with very little boost from the tone knobs, it was loud and on the edge. But give it just a little bit of bass or low mid eq and suddenly quotes from my favorite Star Trek movies passed before my ears...."She'll fly apart at that speed!" and "Well, fly her apart then!" I thought that little box was going to rattle apart and fall to the floor in 6 easy pieces. Obviously that box was never intended to hold the leash of an EVM speaker. Now I am ready to buy a Boogafunk battle tank cab, and I know it will make a ton of difference.
Part of my point is I have concluded that the Express cab is not intended to handle a weapons grade speaker like an EV or even the Tone Tubby Superboy 10 that I have in mine now. In fact, I understand quite well now why EV's are put into Imperial Star Destroyer cabs and played with seperate head amps. It cant be good for the amp to have one of those EVM's sitting under it whacking the heck outa the same cab the amp is bolted to. You can even hear the vibration translating to tube noises, especially when you hit that note at which your guitar resonates (low G on my Strat, about 100hz). I suppose as long as you stay within the consumer grade specs to which the Express is apparently built by using home and consumer grade speakers like Celestions and Eminence and Jensen, you will not notice these issues so much. Not a slap against any of those items, just saying we have to acknowledge the practical limits of the gear we choose and can afford. You wouldn't put a 454 hemi in a stock VW, crank it up to window rattling rpms, and then expect it to give you years of trouble free service. "Captain, she'll fly apart!"
All that being said, I wish everyone could try a properly outfitted EVM12L or EVM15L with their Mesa amp. Once you get it dialed in you will play and play and play for hours before you realize what time it is. The stakes are a bit higher, but for true tone questers you will find it is worth the extra nickel and there is nothing else like it in Guitar Land!