I am only a beginner at machining and have not had a lot of experience with many lathes so I am not in a position to say what is better. I have had my C4 for about 6 months now and I am very pleased with it and do not regret purchasing it. It has plenty of power for everything that I have done with it to date. If I was starting out again I would buy the same machine without any hesitation.
As I was just getting into machining I ordered it with almost all of the accessories that were listed in the local dealers brochure. I wouldn't do that again. I do not recommend the stand, it is not very well built and is not stable. I ended up building my own bench for it. The QCTP that comes with it as an option is not very good. It cost me about GBP 40 and that would have been better spent towards the C4 QCTP from Little Machine Shop. I also got the DRO's as they got a good review from mini-lathe.com. In my case they didn't work out so well. I live in Thailand and the humidity is very high and I think that the DRO's were affected by moisture. First the cross slide DRO acted up and finally died. The day that the dealer came out to take a look at it the compound slide DRO start to fade and lock up. The dealer removed both of them and refunded my money. I guess that the DROs probably would not have the same issue in the UK though.
By chance, last January I was at a construction equipment auction and saw an Emco Maximat Super 11. I wasn't looking for another lathe but I knew that the Super 11 was well regarded by home shop machinists so I figured that if it was cheap enough I would buy it. (Luckily my wife was with me and encouraged me to buy it). I got it for less than the cost of the C4. The C4 with all of the accessories cost me 78,800 Thai Baht (GBP 1,590). The Super 11 cost me 52,000 Thai Baht (GBP1,060) and it came with a lot of tooling and most of the optional accessories except the fixed and traveling steadies.
I haven't had a chance to do much with the Maximat as the one I got is 3 phase and I have had to set it up at my office's workshop. Once I get 3 phase into my home workshop I will start using it. As much as I like the C4 there really isn't much of a comparison, the Maximat is much better built. I know that I am comparing an Austrian built late that cost ten times as much as the Chinese lathe so it isn't a fair comparison.
So, what are my thoughts? If you want to buy a brand new machine on a budget I would recommend the C4, for me it is a very good lathe. However, I would consider looking at used western machines such as the Super 11 or a Harrison M250 or similar if they could be found at a comparable price as the C4, especially if the used machine came with tooling and accessories.
If you have any specific questions about the C4 let me know I will try my best to answer them.
Barty