Wirenutt:
"I seen some mics for $50 and others for over $1000. Also I noticed a switch on a 16 channel sound board that said phantom on or off."
phantom power is 48volts supplied by the soundboard to power some microphones(called condensing mics) these are more expensive but have much better frequency response also more fragile.
Cheaper but more robust mics are called dynamic mics. These don't need the phantom power to operate.
"different types of microphones, 57z, 58z and so forth."
?? Company called Shure makes mics with these model numbers if thats what your looking at.
Glenn
