OK, I unscrewed the connector and unsoldered the wires.
Then I discovered something. Apparantly this mic has a load resistor, 2.2KR I think, right at the mic element. It has three wires:
Red +battery, eg., 9V
Yellow: Audio out
Shield: ground (audio and battery)
Normally one puts a load resistor, like 22KR between Yellow and shield. I do this for AT853 and for another AT831. But it seems this particular model, AT831cW I think, has a built in load resistor. The problem is this resistor only drops about 0.7V or so, so it limits the max SPL I think. I haven't seen any clipping but it is something to look out for.
Oh yeah, I also discoverd that the capsule unscrews. The capsule looks like the AT853 cardoid one, only a bit smaller. So I don't think there are other capsules you could put on. As far as sound goes the AT831 is similar to the AT853. Not as much bass, but that is not a problem for most recording. I can't tell any quality/clarity differences.
But I have one question. Has anyone heard of AT829? This is a cheaper lav mic for wireless systems. I can't find specs on it, but I wonder if it shares any parts, eg., body + FET, with the AT831.
Richard