I did a brief demo with this mic, jacked into my Korg PXR4 Pandora, and it seems to be a pretty good mic. For that application, I think SONY ECM-MS957, which I use, is a better mic, but it is $250, as opposed to the AT-$99. The AT is also physically smaller. I've been considering buying one just to get the whole kit to fit in a camera case. I assume the design is back-electret, although I'm just guessing. It seems a little bright, which suits its purpose as a remote one-point stereo mic.-Richie