In both cases these are the interesting parts of a condenser microphone, so their circuit bears a second look. The condenser microphone takes a diaphragm and turns it into one side of a capacitor.

This Instructable uses a commercial condenser microphone capsule, and takes the reader through generating the bias voltage for it before describing the op-amp buffer circuit.

Fig. 3: The basic parts of a condenser microphone. Left, using an external power supply, and right, a self-charged electret with the impedance converter. (Click here to enlarge.) Let’s look at what ...

Fig. 8: Low-cost electret condenser microphones almost universally contain a JFET in the capsule. The capacitive electret element has virtually no resistance and a capacitance of only 30 to 80 ...

Most MEMS microphones are variants of the condenser microphone design. Digital MEMS microphones have built-in analog-to-digital converter (ADC) circuits on the same CMOS chip making the chip a digital ...

Figures (click thumbnail)FIG. 1 - Circuit of a condenser microphone with electrically switchable polar characteristics. (click thumbnail)FIG. 2 - Polar patterns obtainable from a microphone as shown ...

Blue tells us that the new microphone is directly compatible with the iPad (1, 2 and 3) and iPhone 4/4S via an Apple 30-pin connector, and is instantly recognized for use with any recording app.

Why it made the cut: The TZ Stellar X2 offers sound and performance similar to that of the most desirable vintage condenser mics at an affordable price point. The $200 Stellar X2 is the best ...