Two different animals. The criterion is a harder stainless if I recall - should last appreciably longer - so it may shoot a little better but the real difference probably won't show up for 3,000 - 5,000 rounds.
*Afterthought - the new "400MODBB" barrel material is yet harder than the prior Bartlein barrels.
So lets say you're a high level, long distance shooter - a buddy of mine who was a top 100 High Power shooter in years gone by - I think he said they would notice the beginning of accuracy falling off between 3-4K, but they were still serviceable for thousands of rounds if you turned and cut them for carbine barrels.
Depending on the caliber and how fast it chews out the neck etc - I'd guess that if the house brand is a baseline, a Bartlein might be baseline + 50%, and a 400MODBB might be another 25-50% past that.
I believe cost roughly tracks those parameters as well.
But - this has probably been mentioned once or twice - if you're a shooter who will ever wear the barrel out, the cost of the barrel isn't the big deal. Even at .50-$1/round, if it takes 8000 rounds (random number across calibers for hypothetical math) to wear out a premium 400MODBB Bartlein - You've spent $4,000-$8,000 in ammo, and God only knows how much in travel, optics, and time in the field to whack those coyotes, pigs, or other perfectly innocent forest creatures.
So with all that said, buy the barrel that is going to be the need for your VOLUME. I think that once you get to Craddock and all the other shops who's names are synonymous that offer grades, there may be some differential in the method used between crafting a $400 barrel vs a $1000 barrel but it has more to do with the material and expectation of a customer that can actually tell a 1/4 min difference.
If you're going to hit the range well enough to get your dope out to 400-500 and confirm it regularly, then proceed to whack deer, pigs and yotes - even at a couple hundred a year - a RTR will last you a decade or more at least. My sons and I have been running house brand Craddock 556s for years and we shoot more than the average bears, training classes 2X a year, competition a tiny bit, hunt pigs and yotes frequently with those and others, but they're just starting to show the type of wear in the beginning of the barrel that makes me think in another few thousand rounds they may be ready for replacements.
If you're going to shoot a match a practice match every week, a real match every month, and hope to be on the podium at regionals or better - get the 400MODBB AND a Kreiger and let us know which shoots better/last longer.
