I sold my Marshall Electronics MXL2001 this week, so I did a little search for another large diaphragm, condenser mic this week, and the results may surprise some of you.
Before I start - remember, EVERYone will sound different on every mic, so this is really a matter of HIGH bias. With that, I'll begin......

I listened to AT 4033, 4047, 4050 and 4060. The 4060 is a tube mic with a HUGE power supply, and has a unique sound that the NONtube mics do not share. It's not to my liking, however. Maybe with expensive preamps it would grab me, but straight into a channel .... it lacked the sizzle that the others had. The 4050 sounded alot like the 4033, but has more patterns. If you don't need a figure8, I can't see an advantage. The 4037 has a SLIGHT edge on the 4033, but not enough to justify the difference in price. That left me favoring the 4033.

Moving on to AKG -
I tried 2000, 3000 and 4000. The 2000 was a BIG letdown, the 4000 was nothing special, and while I DID like the 3000b, it still was a step behind the 4033 in terms of overall clarity and presence. The AKG had a thinner sound. I have 4 of the 1000s, and they are terrific, but have smaller capsules.

I listened to alot of HIGH end mics at the same time - Blue Dragonfly, Neumann, Shure, they all had their own distinct sound, but for the price .... I went with the AT 4033 SE. It comes in a wooden box, with a new anniversary pouch, and gold lettering. It also comes with the shock mount. (Most of them did, in this price range)

End result? If I had an unlimited budget, I would have to spend more than twice the price before I noticed a difference. The 4047 was not worth the extra $200 to me, so the next REAL step up would take me into the OVER$1000 range. No thanx. My studio is a modest, 8 track setup, and I wouldn't want the mic to cost more than the console.

I've had very good results with AKG C1000s, and look forward to putting the AT into use on lead vocals very soon. I just finished a CD for a 4pc band - too bad I didn't make the switch sooner!

The 4033 also had the most clean gain of all the mics tested. Even more than some of the $1000 ones. For a progect studio like mine - this is a SURE (non-Shure) winner.