Yes, it needs a simple circuit in order to make it work at all – basically to provide the voltage for the impedance converter (FET) and to isolate the voltage from the audio feed to the recorder. As Ricardo recommended, the simplest suitable circuit is SimpleP48 or SimpleP48RCA, which you will find in his folder on MicBuilders. A more complex circuit is the Alice circuit, originally by Scott Helmke, which can drive much longer cables (SimpleP48 is probably best limited to <30 m or <100’); you will also find this on MicBuilders and many other places.