Phantom Power

Electrical blackouts, brownouts, and power surges can raise havoc with microphones of all types – ribbon, dynamic and condenser types included. Modern consoles have well designed, regulated supplies that turn power on gently even if power is removed momentarily, but many older boards and preamplifiers were designed with unregulated supplies that can surge wildly when

Damaged or worn out XLR connectors can create problems, particularly when phantom power is present, due to a higher potential for short circuits. Always replace connectors that have any appearance of damage or that are obviously worn out. Did this answer your question?Yes   NoAdditional CommentsSend Feedback

This is the leading cause of blown ribbons in professional studios! Many studios use patch bays for the convenient routing of signals. The microphone/mic-preamplifier section of a patch bay normally has two rows. The upper row corresponds to lines that run to various microphone panels (studio, isolation booth, etc.) and this is where the microphone

Electrically shorted, damaged or improperly wired microphone cables can allow phantom power to damage a ribbon element. If ground (Pin-1) is accidentally miswired, or shorted, to leads two (Pin-2) or three (Pin-3), damaging phantom power can reach the ribbon element. Make certain that your microphone cables are in good working order, in proper phase reference,

The ribbon elements in some vintage ribbon microphones can be harmed or even destroyed by the presence of phantom power. For this reason, it is commonly recommended that phantom power be turned off when using ribbon microphones. Leaving phantom power on can result in a stretched or completely blown ribbon. In some cases, the microphone