Greetings, I am not sure if it is still made but I use a Sony ECM970 which is a small hand-held single-point stereo-mic with three-position switch - towards the hand is off, middle is narow- and nearest the head is wide-band stereo. It is powered by a single AA batterey, I have a metal hydride in mine and one charge has lasted well over a year. When the charge goes, it *8sudd**suddenly** goes, takes about half a minute or less, fades and then gone unlike most dry cells which in my experience of some forty years, give good power for a fair time then over a period of (say) two or three hours, fade giving worse and worse sound.
Metal hydride batteries need a special charger, cannot charge with one used for the old-fashioned nycads, they do not have a memory as did nycad batteries and they can last about a thousand charging cycles but when they fail, they fail completely. I've been using them for the last half-dozen or so years and have used many many in all kinds of equipment; in the time, have had about three duds and five finished their lives. >From Colin Howard who lives near Southampton in Southern England. To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: pc-audio-unsubscr...@pc-audio.org