Best way to connect cabs?

[Booooooom]

Noob to BC but hope someone can help.

I've been happily running a 4ohm 4x10 into an old Laney Probass (150W) head for years. The head has two speaker out sockets (min load 4ohm) and it doesn't make any difference which socket I connect the cab to.

Now I've just bought two trace cabs - 2x10+horn and 1x15 (both 200W@8ohm). When I dem'd them they were hooked up into an head with a single speaker connection into the 2x10 then the 1x15 connected via the link socket on the 2x10.

I'm looking to upgrade the head for something beefier (like a trace ah300smx) but in the meantime my query is:
Is it best to connect as above using the speaker link sockets or should I take a speaker lead from each socket on the head to each speaker (or won't it make a blind bit of difference)?

If using the link is there any advantage/disadvantage to which cab is connected first (both cabs have input and link sockets, either jack or xlr)?

and while I'm at it, I've only ever owned kit with jack connections (other than mic to pa) so is there any advantage to using xlr over jack connections?

[Ghost_Bass]

Both ways of linking are completely fine. The only dowside of linking one cab to the other IMO is if the lead connecting the head to the first cab brakes down you loose sound from both cabs.

Xlr is better than 1/4 Jack because it has a better fix in the socket.

[baz]

+1 on what Ghost_Bass said.

I personally connect each cab to their own amp ouput. 2 outputs! might as well use them!

[Booooooom]

Thanks Ghost_Bass and baz

Makes sense to me and nice to know I wasn't missing something obvious!

cheers