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Phantom Power???


The F-Bomb

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Phantom Power was orginally designed to provide polarization voltage to condensor microphones, which need high voltage but virtually no actual power. Hence the de-factor standard of 48 V over 6.8 kOhm (you can draw maybe 7 mA or thereabouts). That's a fairly odd configuration and it can rarely be used for anything else. That's why it's only found on the microhone inputs of mixers.

 

There was an attempt by the AES to change the standard to a much more useful 24V/1.2kOhm which would allow to power a lot more outboard gear and get rid of some wall warts, but it got thwarted by the general conservatism of the industry. That's a shame actually. Nearly all of today's so-called condesor mics (which are in reality permanently polarized eletret mics) would work a lot better with that too.

 

There are some phantom powererd DI boxes on the market but in my opinion, a passive DI box is cheaper and a lot better for most applications.

 

The ART preamp you mentioned, does not run off phatom power, but it can provide phantom power at it's mic input. DON'T DO THAT TO YOUR BASS, it may fry your bass electronics.

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