To anyone reading all of the above, I guess all problems got resolved -- but it may take a bit of reading to get all facts straight ;-)
Just thought I'd add a few clarifications, in case someone is still wondering:
A condensor microphone works by having a membrane somehow suspended in an electric field. It is like a capacitor (in some languages it is actually called the equivalent of a "capacitor microphone"). When the membrane is moved by sound hitting it, so that it gets closer or further away from its opposite backplate, an electrode attached to the membrane will vary it's electrical potential and this can be amplified and translated into an electrical signal your pre-amp can pick up.
For this to work, there are two things needed:
1) You need to make sure there is an electrical field between the membrane and the backplate.
2) You need to amplify the signal from the membrane with a highly sensitivy and, most importantly, high impedance amplifier.
There are two ways to to achieve 1). Either by A) an external polarirzation or B) by internal polarzation in the form of an "electret", which is essentially a material that has a static electric field build into it, somehow build into the membrane/backplate. You might vaguely compare this with magnets; A) being an electo-magnet and B) a permanent magnet.
Examples of microphones of type 1A and 1B are e.g. Oktava MC012 and Behringer ECM8000 (both SDC mics).
Both methods will work. There could be a risk that an electret "wears out", but it can be made simpler, and more easily in a way that does not require phantom power. For studio work, external polarization is more commonly encountered.
There are also at least 3 common ways to achieve 2): Either by A) a tube, or B) by a solid state FET, or by a variation of B, a C) solid state integrated circuit in the form of an "op amp", usually with a FET/CMOS input stage.
There are pros and cons of each of these: A tube has a nice built-in distortion that adds a bit of extra colour. On the other hand, a FET is cleaner, but may not colour in the same way, and thus sound more sterile. An op-amp is probably more difficult to get to sound well, but can be laser-trimmed to provide a better matched circuitry than a corresponding discrete FET stage, and thus in some cases provide a more cost-effective solution than a sorted-FET version.
Examples of 2A, 2B and 2C are e.g. Røde NKT, Røde NT1000 (same membrane, just different amplifiers) and CAD M179 (all LDC mics).
All combinations of 1 and 2 are possible, but some are more unusual.
For 1A types of polarization, you need external power, and for the sake of getting a good signal-to-noise ratio, the higher the better. 48V is quite common for this, although some mics work OK'ish on lower polarization voltage. I believe some DPA mics can even work with higher voltages with a special power supply. 1B does not require power for polarization.
All condenser mics require power for their amplication, though. Tube mics, 2A, requires a higher voltage (200V), whereas solid state amps, 2B and 2C, can work on "anything", down to battery operated designs. Note than it is possible to do a "step up", so that the circuitry can work with higher voltages internally than what it is supplied with.
This was the electrical design. Then comes the acoustic design, which includes the issue of small vs. large diaphragm mics.
It is very difficult to do any generalization based on the diaphragm size alone. You need to take the complete acoustic design into consideration. This includes obviously the diaphragm, its material and tension and suspension, the backplate design and distances, the size of the air mass "trapped" inbetween, the number of holes and their position and the acoustic paths to both sides of the membrane, the grill, etc.
Think of this like a system of one or seveal springs with some damping and coupling between it. It is not only the size of the spring, but also the mass, damping, etc.
This all determines the basic characteristics of the mic, including its polar pattern, proximity effect, frequency response and transient characteristics, distortion, etc. The built-in amp of course also influences the sound, but probably less so than the acoustic designs.
But again, all combinations of acoustic designs can be coupled with all kinds of electronic designs... The most unusual, though, would be a variable pattern twin-diaphragm electret LDC with a tube amp...
The simplest mic that can be made is an electret omni directional microphone. These can be good bang-for-the-buck mics.
Probably the most difficult mics to make are tube amplified variable-pattern externally polarized mics.
-- Per.
))a little on the capacitor issue: The capsule is a capacitor. Condenser is just a slightly antiquated synonym for capacitor in the English language.
Don
