Pearl CM2000 - electret microfone. Phantom power?

[made2hack]

Hello,

So i've got a 70s vintage Pearl CM2000 electret - condenser microphone that has a battery compartment for a 1.5V AA battery. It connects via XLR jack on the bottom. I've yet to power it on, however I wanted to know if I need to supply 48V phantom from my mixer?

The fact that it is powered would suggest that I do not, and I don't want to give it phantom and fry it. Is the battery a pre-amp circuit thus bypassing the need for phantom power to the mic? If I give it phantom, will it fry? Or will it just amplify the signal even more?

Thanks,

[flynwill]

If it has a battery, then the answer is almost certainly "no it doesn't need phantom power".  Before phantom power became common, Electret mics with batteries like you've found were fairly common.  Look close at the battery compartment for labels, many of these took 9 or 18V cells not AAs.

[Zero999]

An electret microphone doesn't need a 48V phantom power supply. The electric field is provided by an electret (the electrostatic analogue of a permanent magnet), hence the name.

The 1.5V battery is required to power a JFET pre-amplifier, as the output impedance from the microphone transducer is so high, even the capacitance of a short piece of cable would attenuate the signal below the noise floor.