Male to Male XLR Wiring

[ChrisW1]

Hi,

For some reason I'm confusing my self wiring up some male to male xlr gender changers!

 

Do I stick with the same wiring (eg earth on pin 1, positive on 2) on both ends, or do I need to swap pins 1 and 2 over on one of the end?

 

Thanks all

[GR1]

Keep both ends the same. Pin 1 Screen Pin 2 Hot/Signal Pin3 Cold/Return.If you are wiring for unbalanced use link Pins 1 and 3.There are lots of diagrams on line.

 

[timsabre]

Normally you would wire it to the same pin at each end - pin 1 to 1, 2 to 2, 3 to 3, assuming you are just using them for audio cables.

[TimmyTee]

That is SO weird! I've just made up a sex changer and had exactly the same query. I did as the replies on here said and it works a treat.

[ChrisW1]

Thank you!!

[sunray]

Ohhhh this takes me back...

 

About 1973 I turned pro. Well actually I became the sound operator for the local councils 2 theatres when they both had new sound systems installed. It soon became apparent we could not the mic leads in the wrong theatre and I quickly found one of them was wired with pin 3 as screen [to match with the format of the earth pin in the middle like DIN plugs].

 

I wanted to rewire the incorrect sockets and plugs but was not allowed as the systems had been installed by 'Professionals' [and at great expense]. Instead they purchased 2 sets of adapter cables at £45 per cable and even they had a phase reversal, which I was allowed to correct.

 

I'd like to say XLR's were about 60p at the time.

 

 

More recently a colleague purchased a kit of adapter leads [I suspect from Amazon or Ebay] and all of the m/m or f/f XLR leads had a 1 & 2 flip.

Edited September 13, 2019 by sunray

[david.elsbury]

An easy mistake to make. Much like forgetting to put the boot on before you solder the connector. I would like to say you only do it once, but.... ;)

[sandall]

I quickly found one of them was wired with pin 3 as screen [to match with the format of the earth pin in the middle like DIN plugs].

It happened both ways - when Calrec brought out their 600 series of capacitor mics they wired the DIN connectors with Pin 1 ground, presumably to match their XLR mics. Very confusing for anyone who already had a large collection of DIN cables for AKG mics with conventionally wired connectors.

 

 

An easy mistake to make.

 

 

True, but also an easy one to spot when you check your handiwork.

 

 

Edited September 14, 2019 by sandall

[sunray]

An easy mistake to make. Much like forgetting to put the boot on before you solder the connector. I would like to say you only do it once, but.... ;)

I would also like to say you only do it once

but.... ;)

but.... ;)

but.... ;)but.... ;)

but.... ;)

In fact I can sadly admit to terminating a whole end of a 24 way snake

but.... ;)

[Cheeseweasel]

 

In fact I can sadly admit to terminating a whole end of a 24 way snake

but.... ;)

 

Now that's definitely something you only do once!