Just got off the phone with a tech from Sound Pro. Very nice guy. He said they have tested their at853's with upto 18 volts of phatom power without fying them.
They now offer those mics on their page with a new $100 add on package to power off of phantom power between 9-52v or off of the battery pack.
Here's the info from their site on the new package you can order them with:
Option 2: Add the Phantom power adapter kit. This will allow you to use the mics with "plug in power", a battery module (as in option 1) or with 9-52v Phantom power which is available on many professional mixers, mic preamps and recorders. When powered with Phantom power, the dynamic range and maximum SPL (sound pressure level) are increased even further (see specs below). The phantom power kit includes two phantom power adapters (Samson PM-4) and two high quality gold plated cable adapters as shown in the picture below.
Specifications:
Signal To Noise Ratio: 67 dB, 1 kHz at 1 Pa
Dynamic Range: 83dB without battery module, 98dB with battery module, 111dB with Phantom power kit
Frequency Response: Omni-Directional 20-20,000 Hz all others 30 - 20,000 Hz
Open Circuit Sensitivity: -43 dB (5.6 mV) re 1V at 1 Pa
Maximum Input Sound Level: 110 dB SPL, 1 kHz at 1% T.H.D. (125dB when powered by our battery module, 138dB with Phantom power kit)
What the tech told me is that I can modify them with a phantom power adaptor and then run it off of that 9-52v of phantom power. The power adaptor was the Samson PM4 (sam-pm4). $29.99 on their site. For the modification he said- red > 2 pin, yellow > 3 pin, and then ground. I'll give this a shot next weekend hopefully.
--hoyt