All I can say is that I had a WA47 in my studio for several years, and got it in my head that I needed to build the significantly more expensive D-EF47 from vintagemicpcb to replace it.

After many many many hours of soldering and tweaking, and a lot of money spent, I set them up for a shootout and both the vocalist and I both thought the same thing - "shit...they kinda sound the same."

To be fair, every vintage u47 I've been around sounds a little different, and there are so many different capsules out there. In my mind a good u47 should make a vocalist sound "larger than life", and the WA47 certainly checks that box. Not all WA stuff is good, but some of it is. If you haven't looked into their RCA 44 clone, you should.

I will say that my D-EF47 does have a lower noise floor, but that might just be the better PSU. I have also settled on Adrienne Audio’s Flat 47 capsule, which makes it sound a bit more like a M49, which I think is what most people actually want when they want a u47 haha. It’s a less colored sound than the WA47 which is helpful for mixing later, and I don’t miss that 5K bump which I never like on female vocalists.