I realize this thread is old, but I think many people may arrive here looking for info about the ecm8000. I can help with the explanation of the schematic posted and something more...
In order of the signal path:
- C1 (3n3) is a low pass filter, 6dB/octave, cutoff or -3dB point at about 16KHz. Changing it for 1n or less improves the high end response without any undesired side effects. If you're going to change this, use a ceramic 330p to 1n capacitor.
- The intended function of the first transistor, BC118 or BC331 (Behringer has used both), is to make the unbalanced signal a balanced one. At the emitter and collector we have the same signal as in the base (input), but at lower impedance and one inverted with respect to the other. The gain is 1 (0dB). But there is a flaw here: to work as intended C6 should be connected to the emitter of this transistor instead of to ground. I have not opened any of my ecm8000s to see if actual circuit has this mistake or is only the schematic that has the mistake, but no doubt it's a mistake. The effect of this flaw is a 6dB loss of level and SNR when connected to balanced preamps. As is in the schematic, this transistor would do nothing except adding some noise.
- The last two transistors are emiter followers for each of the two balanced signals. Their only but very convenient function is to lower the output impedance. As emitter followers, the gain is obviously 1 (0 dB). C6, C7, C9 and C10 make low pass filtering, the cutoff frequency is 200KHz, well above the audio band. R12 and R13 improve the slope of the low pass filter and provide provide stability and protection against highly capacitive or inductive loads at the expense of raising the output impedance a bit. Still the output impedance remains at an excellent low value. So everything right at this stage.
- So the total gain of the circuit is 1 (0 dB), so it does not have nor need any feedback loop. The design is very good except the flaw described above, that most probably is only in the schematic and not in the actual circuit (I may confirm this if I open my mic sometime).
--------------
Some people modify the capsule to use its FET as a drain follower instead of a common drain amplifier to raise the maximum SPL (sound pressure level) handling. This is completely unnecesary for any purpose other than close drum micing or measurements at levels above 115dB SPL (permanent ear damaging levels). If you intend to make this modification, note that you must also add an ultra low noise amplification stage immediately at the capsule output. When using the capsule's FET as a drain follower, we loose all the amplification we had as common drain amplifier, and because the very low level provided by the electret mic, we need to correctly amplify it very close to the capsule to avoid a severe degradation of SNR. Regardless of author's claims, every amplification circuitry I have seen designed by people that does such modification is simply lame and will convert your good balanced mic into a lot noisier, much higher output impedance and unbalanced ouput one, incompatible with pro mic preamplifiers, only with a bit higher SPL handling and that only in some designs. If you really need to improve the maximum SPL handling of this mic and modify the capsule as drain follower, keep using the original balancing buffer, that's pretty good, and simply add a common emiter amplifier with some feedback between the capsule and the balancing buffer. Use a bipolar transitor, not a FET: after the capsule's FET, we have a low enough impedance so we want here the smallest equivalent input voltage better than the smallest equivalent input current, so a bipolar is better here). Some modification is also needed to the power suply scheme: the added amplifier stage and the BC118 should be powered by more voltage than 6V, but can't be powered from 48 since most small signal transistors can't handle that, ideal would be around 24v given that most small signal transistors specify a maxVce of 30v. A simple zener and a capacitor would do it well. If done this way, the result would be a very similar balanced low impedance mic, with 12dB higher maximum SPL handling and most probably (depends on the added stage) only a bit noisier than the stock ecm8000. Even further you may add a switch to bypass the added amplifier stage for really high SPL handling above 130dB, supposing that the electret itself could handle that. Note that you increase the minimum phantom power requirement to 24v, and that the mic pre you connect it to must be able to handle very high levels. The maximum output of the mic this way would be near +20dBu, while even the highest end pro Yamaha preamps clip at -14dBu without padding or -4 with padding, but many other manufacturers allow near 0dBu levels at mic inputs without padding, and some even handle more than +10dBu. Anyway, all this is only is to use this mic for purposes very different for which it has been designed.
-------------
About the frequency response of this mic, what I have found is that there have been very different production series. My mics are all from the very first series, and sure don't match any of the responses I have seen reported by other owners in the net. I have not sent them to a lab for accurate calibration but I have a high end B&K 4007 measurement mic and by comparison I'm sure my ecm8000s don't show shuch an exagerated peak near 10KHz, but something between +1.5..+2.5dB. So what I got was cheap and reasonably good measurement mics, but you can not trust the high frequency part of the actual piece you get without calibration or at least comparison with another mic you can trust. And if you have to calibrate, you can use actually any small condenser or electret. I purchaed the ECM8000 to avoid moving my B&K (I drop it once and repair cost was $1200), and I was satisfied with its performance, but because I'm using a portable computer for measurement, now I find much more convenient one I made based in a subminiature $1 capsule mounted in a thermoretractile tube of only 5mm diameter. When I calibrated against the B&K, I found this $1 capsule was excellent, even better than my ECM8000s, and nicely fits in a small pocket of the portable's suitcase.