[BC] The XLR pinout debate

[Cowboy]

On Saturday 12 August 2006 05:31 pm, Alan Alsobrook wrote:
> I continue to say that this debate is somewhat confused.  I first 
> noticed Pin 2 being + in some older Otari manuals. I of course was a bit 
> confused since it had always been pin 3 to my knowledge.

 In professional broadcasting, it had always been the lowest low,
 to the highest high, until recent years.

 With the influx of foreign made stuff, and the younger guys knowing
 no better, it's migrated to pin 2 hot.

 There's a story that it always was pin 2 in band grade stuff, but I've
 no direct knowledge in that realm.

> Then I looked  
> further in this same manual and their drawings had the center pin 
> labeled as #2. This is quite contrary to the way that Switchcraft and 
> others number the pins when they build the device. From this I drew the 
> conclusion and have stuck with it, that somewhere, some how, someone 
> mislabeled the pin numbers and that the actual location of the wires 
> have remained the same.
> So for me, pin 3 (the offset one in the middle) is still and will always 
> be +.

 So many stories.....

 I prefer the manual by one manufacturer, though I forget who, who in their
 XLR wiring diagram simply show + to + and - to - as well as ground to ground,
 and ONLY pin 1 is numbered !

 SO.....
 If I'm working with Alan, it'll be the old standard, and with John B. the new standard,
 and if one doesn't ask, it'll be a mess !

-- 
Cowboy