Adapting a microphone to remote phantom power

OK, another potential project: re-jiggering the mike for my Sony Walkman Professional cassette recorder to use phantom power.

I have the WM-D6C Walkman "Professional" recorder and a Sony ECM-737 stereo microphone. The rig still makes very nice recordings. (No, I don't usually use it for music, and I'm not pushing cassette as the ultimate recording medium.)

The annoying thing about it is that while the microphone requires a battery (a single AA cell), the recorder is apparently perfectly capable of supplying power to the mike. The mike jack is marked "PLUG IN POWER", which I suppose is Sony's way of identifying phantom power. (This may not be "phantom power" in the sense of standard supply voltage, but instead a proprietary Sony level.) I can't tell you how many times I've had problems recording which turned out to be a low or dead battery in the microphone. Probably my bad for not buying the next-better mike, which I think did run on the recorder's power.

So I'm thinking I could modify the microphone to accept power from the recorder, without modifying the recorder in any way. There are a few things I don't know, however:

o The voltage of the power supplied by the recorder, which runs on 4 AA cells. (48 volts? I'm guessing not, but who knows?)

o The configuration of the microphone jack. My mike uses a 3-conductor plug, so what happens to the power contact in the jack?

o The wiring inside the mike and the difficulty of rewiring it (haven't opened it up yet to look).

Anyone familiar at all with this equipment? Care to give some advice on how to proceed?

Thanks in advance.


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