Does anyone have any experience with the three wire electret microphones radio shack sells. The diagram on the packing seems to suggest its just a regular electret but with an already wired input resistor and a coupling ecapacitor.I can see the resistor as a bulge in the input wire, but i can't see the 10 microfarad capacitor that is supposed to be connected to the negative lead and makes the third wire. Can anyone who has worked with these electrets confirm if this is true

 

Nobody knows what is in the RadioShack mic (even RadioShack doesn't know) because they don't make it.
It probably does not have the resistor and capacitor.

Buy a real microphone from a manufacturer.

 

That type is called an FET microphone. The bare wire is negative, the red wire is your bias voltage and the white wire is the output. The output should be coupled through the capacitor. Sometimes they are manufactured with the capacitor inside the case.

An electret microphone is simply a capacitor with a diaphragm for the positive plate that vibrates with sound.

 

Hello,

Have a look at the bottom of this page from ESP:
http://sound.westhost.com/project93.htm

Bertus

 

That type is called an FET microphone. The bare wire is negative, the red wire is your bias voltage and the white wire is the output. The output should be coupled through the capacitor. Sometimes they are manufactured with the capacitor inside the case.

An electret microphone is simply a capacitor with a diaphragm for the positive plate that vibrates with sound.

As shown by Bertus, all electret mics have a FET impedance converter inside. The mic can have two wires or three wires.