Just something to be aware of: Nearly all phantom-powered microphones have balanced outputs. So do nearly all phantom power supplies, since they're intended to be connected to the (likewise balanced) inputs of pro audio mixers and recorders. But the Sony M10 is a consumer device, with the unbalanced inputs typical of consumer recording equipment. So you need your phantom power supply to power your microphones, but also to convert their output signals to unbalanced format. And most phantom power supplies (being made for use with professional equipment) aren't designed to do that.
Thus the talk of modifications at the output of the phantom power supply.
But what people really, really need to realize is that the possible wiring schemes for making that conversion vary with different types of microphones. There's no one wiring scheme that always works, and no such thing as a passive "balanced to unbalanced" adapter or wiring scheme, short of using an input transformer (and the good ones of those are bulky and expensive). Instead you always have to find out the particular method of connection that is appropriate for your particular type of microphone--and that varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, and even from model to model from the same manufacturer. If you get everything done right for your favorite microphones today, but later on you want to try another kind of microphone, you may need to have the circuitry modified again. When you use the wrong wiring scheme for unbalancing the signals from a balanced microphone, you might hear nothing but noise and/or faint leakage of the original signals; or the mikes might sound OK when you try them out at home or in the store, but at the next show you record, you might find that the maximum sound level that they can handle is signficantly reduced (because your wiring scheme is actually short-circuiting an actively driven side of the output). In some extreme cases the microphones can be damaged in an expensive way (e.g. an output transistor burns out); that's rare, but it can and does happen, for sure.
In addition, most phantom power supplies (though not a stock Denecke PS-2) pass the DC phantom supply voltage along to their outputs, which is generally harmless when connecting to balanced inputs, but potentially fatal to unbalanced equipment. So you need to protect the input of your recorder from that voltage if you have such a supply.
And finally, professional condenser microphones may be far more sensitive than the microphones that a consumer recorder was designed to be used with. As a result, if you try to record anything loud, you risk overloading the inputs of the recorder with those much higher signal levels. This type of overload generally occurs in the very first (input) circuit stage of the recorder, BEFORE (in terms of signal flow) the level control has any effect. So even if you've turned the record level control down to a near-minimum setting, and even if the meters show that 0 dB isn't being reached or even approached very closely, the signals you record could still be severely distorted. This happens rather often to people who naively connect stuff together that simply wasn't designed to work together; you can see numerous messages on this board from baffled newcomers who don't understand where the distortion is coming from, since the meters never went above minus whatever.
All in all, if you've read this far, I think you can see why some people are gently suggesting that you consider an outboard preamp with phantom powering and unbalanced, or readily "unbalanceable," outputs. They can solve all the above problems in a single move. All you have to work out is how to connect the preamp's outputs to your recorder's line inputs, and then you can use any microphones that accept standard phantom powering (provided that the preamp's phantom powering is adequate for those microphones).
This stuff is by no means impossible to learn, but neither is it quite as simple as some people wish it to be.
--best regards
Topic: Phantom Power and the PCM-M10 (Read 5191 times)