I currently own four 4060s but I've never used the 4053.
Personally I love the 4060s and their sound. Best bang for the buck mic around for my uses. No mic is perfect in all situations and placement is the number one factor in recording regardless of microphone, yet with some EQ work I can often get great sounding recordings from these even when the source recording is badly tonally balanced for whatever reason. That's a huge plus in my book and something I can't pull off nearly as successfully with a lot of other mics in the same price range or even with many more expensive mics. I'm completely satisfied and not looking for other omnis.. I'd love to get a hold of a pair of the DPA wide cards, but will likely end up with a pair of adapted 4099 (or the rumored yet unreleased distant mic'ing equivalent) or additional 4060s (for my surround apps) mostly for size & cost reasons.
Obviously the 4053 is a technically superior mic in almost all ways, including:
Self Noise
Ultimate resolution
48v phantom powering without adapters
Slightly longer, more comprehensive warranty
Prestige
On the flip-side, 4060 is superior in a few areas:
Price
Retaining a truly omnidirectional pattern up to the very highest frequencies
Incredibly small size
Designed to be sweat and water proof
Easy wearability and DIY type rigging of all sorts
Boundary mountable
5-10v powering without adapters
A few user notes on the 4060s-
You can power the 4060's with the DPA phantom adapters, which JD posted, by a simple 9v battery box, or with a small external preamp such as the DPA MMA6000 (not so small) which provides 5-10v power.
Chris Church's CA-UGLY preamp provides 0-20db of gain, is the size of a single 9v battery holder and is sonically comparable to the MMA6000. The CA-UGLY, which powers and amplifies two mics, is about the same size as a single XLR-microdot adapter, of which you'd need two for both mics. I use two of them to power and amplify my four 4060s, and they fit easily in a pocket with a small flash recorder. Their gain adjustment is not as easy or repeatable as the MMA6000, but the small size is unbeatable and a worthwhile trade-off for me. The high sensitivity of the 4060 typically needs less preamp gain than most mics and in some cases I just dial the UGLY gain to 0db and use them only as a batt box to power the mics.
You can get short, custom microdot-to-connector of your choice adapter cables (1/8 TRS, mini-xlr, full xlr, whatever) made for you to adapt the custom terminations to what ever you want to plug them into at not much cost by the vendors around here who have microdot tools. I use a short 'Y' adapter cable into once of the CA-UGLY. The higher self noise of the 4060 has not been an issue for me even with super dynamic symphonic, quiet neo-classical, jazz and other 'down to the sound floor of the venue' type material. The noise floor of even the quietest venue has always been significantly higher.
There are some 4060 vs 4006 comps and discussions amongst the professional location recording crowd posted over on the gearsluts board.
Topic: Can't decide which Omni's to get...DPA 4053's or DPA 406X... (Read 7170 times)