XLR Gender change adaptors

[mackerr]

2's HOT

3's NOT

Unless you're using older, often US made, equipment.

 

You mean like the Klark Technik DN360, DN500 series, DN410, and pretty much all of their early versions? I hadn't realized they were made in the US.

 

Of all the pin 3 hot problems I have run into in over 35 years in professional audio, every single one of them involved pin 3 hot unbalanced XLRs on KT equipment. The not so subtle US bashing is really tiresome.

 

Mac

[dbuckley]

Its the Brits who had pin 3 hot many years ago, not the USAns...

[boatman]

Its the Brits who had pin 3 hot many years ago, not the USAns...

 

To be precise it was the BBC! When I worked in P. & I. D. in the early 70's I had to deliberately solder the XLRs wrongly compared to the ones I was used to doing for other applications.

[dbuckley]

Not just the BBC; much British kit. Studiomaster consoles spring to mind, as I used those a lot back in the day, and I'm sure I could dredge back some more memories

[Unfathomable]

Wow, I didn't know this would be such a hot topic! http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif

Thanks for sorting it out, just had a fun afternoon turning old broken cables into shiny new adaptors!

Not just the BBC; much British kit. Studiomaster consoles spring to mind, as I used those a lot back in the day, and I'm sure I could dredge back some more memories

When you say old studiomaster consoles, is there a date they changed or are all their consoles reversed? It might explain a problem a band I work with has had.

On the other hand, Its a desk of many problems and I doubt that sorting one will ever persuade me to use it for an event!

cheers

 

Dave

[dbuckley]

When you say old studiomaster consoles, is there a date they changed or are all their consoles reversed?

Don't know. The stuff in the 80s was certainly pin 3 hot. The mixers I remember using were the x-4-2 with 3 band EQ, 2 swept.

 

To be fair, on balanced signals, as long as the path on both L&R is the same, it doesn't really matter if pin 2 or 3 is hot. As long as random cables don't swap it over in just one path, that leads to ugly results...

 

Beat up mixer of the sort I vaguely remember:

 

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/attachments/low-end-theory/117361d1239205182-studiomaster-16-4-2-opinions-studiomaster-16-4-2-1.jpg

[Unfathomable]

When you say old studiomaster consoles, is there a date they changed or are all their consoles reversed?

Don't know. The stuff in the 80s was certainly pin 3 hot. The mixers I remember using were the x-4-2 with 3 band EQ, 2 swept.

 

To be fair, on balanced signals, as long as the path on both L&R is the same, it doesn't really matter if pin 2 or 3 is hot. As long as random cables don't swap it over in just one path, that leads to ugly results...

 

Beat up mixer of the sort I vaguely remember:

 

 

 

Ahh,, Theirs is circa 1990 I think. Adding any possible problems caused by a 3rd pin hot to its long list of faults makes it a desk probably beyond repair.

[Matt Pengelly]

2's HOT

3's NOT

 

:)

 

Sounds like you're going to the wrong parties, JD! ;)

[grizzly]

From back in the day: Seck mixers

 

http://www.gbaudio.co.uk/images/seck/62mk2.jpg

 

also had pin 3 hot on their outputs.

At least, the one I used had, until I did a bit of internal re-soldering, to get around having to use annoying phase-change adaptors that people kept loosing.

[Biskit]

The Bose 802/302 controller in the PA amp rack I'm currently working on has pin 3 hot on the inputs. Outputs are TRS jacks (conventionally tip hot, ring cold). Glad I noticed the diagram on top of the casing as it means I'll need polarity reverse cables on the inputs. That said, in all but the most critical of applications, I suspect very few would ever notice the difference just listening to the PA.

[Simon Lewis]

My first new mixer (a Star Sound Dynamix!) wouldn't give any usable output. It took a little while to realise the output XLRs were a) unbalanced and b) pin 3 hot. I had always assumed that the UK manufacturer had followed US convention ;-)