"On the other hand, to be directional the capsule must have rear sound ports with acoustical phase shift networks, which for any practical design has inherent non-idealities."
Mwahahah! But not the microphone array design I'm working on, because it uses a digital delay line!
I think what I'm going to do is give it an SPDIF output. My Focusrite interface has an SPDIF input, and many consumer sound cards have one too. Should make for a cheap way of equipping your home computer with a good mic.