I once posted a comp here of an outdoor Umphreys show comparing my C4 > minime to 4022 > v3. They sounded really close. The 4022 brought a bit more bottom (though I've always felt the v3 has a bit of rolloff built in). Are the 4022 and c4 close? Not really... But I don't think you hear the difference so much at an outdoor show, where the great off-axis response of the 402x isn't as apparent.
That's funny (not ha ha funny, but "interesting" funny). You say you did a comp, and that the results sounded very close to each other. but based then, based on what I assume are biases not related to the comparison, you still thought/think the 4022 and the C4 aren't close in sound.
Let me be clear - I am not picking at methodology or anything like that. Just asking questions about what makes recordings sound different. We haven't had nearly enough comps lately, and this was a fun one.
No doubt - the C4 is an amazing value, and I made some excellent recordings with it. But sometimes, it's limitations are glaringly apparent (pun sorta intended). I've never owned or run the 402x, but consider them comparable to mics I do own - gefells and schoeps. So, no, I don't consider the C4's to be close. And I wouldn't say that opinion is due to bias, but rather experience. The c4's limitations will pop up and produce unfavorable results with some regularity. Unfortunately, you don't typically know if you're in that situation until after the fact. So you often get very good results, but rarely great results.
Listener fatigue is one of those weird things that's really subjective. But, boy, I hear it and it's real. Is it distortion, off-axis issues, smearing of some frequencies.. Not sure. Linn audio often talked about "toe tapping" quality to music reproduction - does something sound "musical". I find great subcards and omni sources are far more musical, and natural than most card sources. It takes really great cards to compare.
With my C4's cards, I started liking my 4061's a lot more and ran the C4's less and less.
under a pavilion roof (like the comp posted in this thread). Sure, there were no back walls to reflect sound, but off-axis response certainly comes into play with reflections off the roof.
That roof is a killer! Plus weird reflections off the metal grandstands in back. I only recorded there once and I was not happy with the result. It was one of my worst recordings in a long while.
The sonosax I was running (beyerdynamic CK930) was being powered by two internal 9V batteries. Lenny has a tekkeon to power his, but I'm not sure what voltage setting it was set to.
My impression from the factory comments is that anything less than 24volts (I think that was it) will reduce the headroom of the sax. Whether that is true, and whether the reduction is significant, are questions to be answered.
Another thought.. How hot was each recording? I don't think we've comp'd that question nearly enough. I owned a 722 and never found out whether it sounded best at 0 db gain line in or -6. Some people ran it -6, I ran it at 0. I think a lot of preamps will distort when their outputs are run *that* hot (assuming the 7xx is driven close to 0dbFS). We tend to focus on peak db, but I think rms is also important when discussing level based issues.