Mackie SR24•4 Owner's Manual page 56

system. In the strict sense of the DIN standard,
this is not true. Furthermore, microphones or
transducers that claim to use this system are not
compatible with the DIN standard and will almost
certainly be damaged if connected into such a
system. Fortunately, these systems use tip-ring-
sleeve phone plugs or miniature XLR connectors
and they are usually associated with instrument
pickup applications
45 596 or IEC standard 268–15A. Your Mackie
Designs mixer conforms to this standard.
system, a device (microphone, preamp with a
microphone-style output, or direct box) must
have a balanced and floating, low-impedance
output. This includes all microphones commonly
used for sound reinforcement and recording such
as the Shure SM58, SM57, Electro-Voice RE-15,
RE-16, RE-20, ND series, Beyer M160, M500,
AKG D224, D12, D112, and MANY others.
condenser microphones, such as the AKG C12,
Neumann U47 or U67, these microphones may be
Appendices Appendices
connected in a phantom powered system and will
operate without regard to the presence or absence
of phantom power. They will always require their
external power supply (which must be plugged in
and turned on).
2 There is another remote powering system called A-B or
T-system powering. It uses pins 2 and 3 to carry both
power and audio. It is not compatible with dynamic
microphones or phantom powered microphones.
54
2 .
Phantom powering is defined in DIN standard
What works?
To be compatible in a phantom powered
If you are fortunate enough to own any tube
DO
If you are plugging in a condenser microphone,
do verify that your microphone can be phantom
powered.
Ensure that the microphone's output is low
impedance, balanced and floating. This is
especially important for vintage ribbon
microphones like the RCA 44BX and 77DX.
Mute the sound system when turning the
phantom power on or off, or when connecting
or disconnecting microphones. If you forget,
the resulting loud, nasty POP may be your last.
What doesn't work?
The list is short:
1. Microphones with unbalanced outputs.
2. Microphones with grounded center-tapped
outputs. Many old ribbon microphones were
supplied connected this way. Have a techni-
cian lift the ground from the center tap.
3. High-impedance microphones.
4. Microphones that exhibit leakage between
pin 2 or pin 3 and pin 1. These microphones
will sputter and crackle when phantom
power is applied and will work fine when
you turn off the phantom power. Get the
microphone repaired.
Do's and Don'ts of Fixed Installations
If you install sound systems into fixed installa-
tions, there are a number of things that you can
do to make your life easier and that increase the
likelihood of the sound system operating in a pre-
dictable manner. Even if you don't do fixed
installations, these are good practices for any
sound system, installed.
1. Do use foil-shielded snake cable for long cable
runs. Carefully terminate each end, minimiz-
ing the amount of shielding removed. Protect
the exposed foil shield with shrink sleeving or
PVC sleeving. Prevent adjacent shields from
contacting each other (electrically). Use
insulating sleeving on the drain wire (the one
that connects to pin 1) to prevent it from
contacting the connector shell.
DO & DON'T CHART
Worry about your other microphones as long as
their output is balanced and floating.
Connect microphones or devices that do not
conform to the DIN 45 596 standard.
Don't connect A-B or T-system microphones
(another remote powering system) without
suitable adaptors.
DON'T