Topic: balanced 3 wire microphones into unbalanced recorder

[weroflu]

hypothetically, if you wanted to connect a pair of balanced dynamic mics or condensers into the unbalanced mic input of a handheld recorder, how does this work?

do you just tie cold to ground? or just disconnect the cold wire?

does it work the same way with phantom powered mics and dynamics?

you also lose some gain if you do this?

i know that you do this with a di box or external preamp, but i'm wondering how to do this directly.

[TSNéa]

Jon,
Thanks for this very informative answer, as usual, even if I didn't ask the question...

I think the question about what pin the signal is on at the output of the microphone is a concern mainly if you mix with another, because of the phase, right? How can you know this pin?
For instance, Avantone says nothing about the CK-1:
http://www.avantonepro.com/Avantone-CK-1-Small-Capsule-FET-Pencil-Microphone.html
Well, I could ask them...

And is there any danger (other than a poor quality of the audio) for the microphone or the power supply if I do something wrong at the output of the supply? I guess no but I prefer to ask!

Thank you.

[TSNéa]

OK, Jon, thank you: I think I got it.

As for now, I use a "small" mixer for preamp and phantom powering and I feed my recorder with the unbalanced output.
But someday I could go with only a small portable 48 V supply...

[weroflu]

Jon, thanks for that detailed answer.

Add in this complication. If the recorder's mic input has no facility for disabling plug-in power, does this change anything?

[DSatz]

Jon, you don't seem to accept PMs so I'm just going to say this in full view of the public: Nice work answering these questions, which aren't always answered as accurately as you've done here.

--best regards