My C-4 signatures sounded awful till they ran in awhile, and I do mean strange and awful. Beaming midrange and just plain weird. Not so after many, many hours. It seem high-end drivers just aren't themselves till you run them in awhile. I'd wait awhile before I decided the speaker sound like "this" or "that".
My room is pretty large; 39 feet long, 13 feet wide and with a 9 foot ceiling. The C4's sit in the "long section" of an L-shaped room. The left speaker is open to the "L", the right speaker is to a wall. I set the speakers 4 feet from the back wall, and three feet from the right side wall. The left speaker is, as I said, open to the "L".
These speakers have crazy good detail and debth of the imaging field between, and behind, the speakers. Sonic placement is pint-point stable and open with the right pre-amp. The XP-10 I use is very good at detail. My RLD-1 platinum gives away some of that open and deep presentation for a super smooth almost tube-like presentation. The sound stage is more forward, the imaging is larger but with less detail and a shallower front to back debth. Still, the sound is addictive. For a SS unit, the RDL-1 is a very nice and smooth sounding pre-amp.
That the C4's can sound so different on each preamp says in-home listening will be required to select the right speakers / electronics at this level.
I have two modestly capable pre-amps and amazingly good ODYSSEY KISMET mono amps. So, I'm in a listen and decide mode on my final amp and pre-amp.