Almost any condenser mic is going to want to see 48v to achieve it's full dynamic range, some want more like 60v. They should all function at 30v, but with a negative impace on dynamic range (read: ability to handle louder sources).
A small clarificiation is needed here.
Basically, the microphone has some electronic circuits. These get their power from the preamp over the mic cable. How the power is delivered (and hence in what ways you could possibly build a microphone) is described by the standard. Not all mics are made for 48V phantom, do check your mic, it might be damaged otherwise.
Phantom power is described by a standard (a paper describing how you really should do things). It should be followed by all mic pres. Mics that are made to work with phantom power are expecting the mic pre to follow the standard and happily be connected to any mic pre following the standard.
A quite different example of a standard may be the 110V 60Hz you get from the power outlet in most of the US (and several other parts of the world), whereas in Europe you instead have 230V 50Hz for the most part. So if you take a unit from Europe (expecting 230V) to US and plug it in to the power outlet (giving 110V) it might work or it might not work.
The most used standard as of today is P48, ie 48V phantom power. (There is a quite unusual standard called P12 -- don´t ever connect a mic made for that to P48, it could be damaged).
P48 says that the pre should have a "free" Voltage (without mic) of 48V plus or minus 4V. That is 44 to 52V. Mics are made to this and there are no guarantees what will happen if the pre does not supply this voltage. If for some reason your pre outputs lower or higher voltage anything can happen.
The real world experience is that if you have a much higher voltage than 52V the mic may burn some circuits (don´t try this at home kids). It all depends on the exact circuits inside the mic, some may take more, some less.
If you have a lower voltage then 44V a number of different things happens, exactly what depends on the exact circuits inside the mic, often only known by the manufacturer. One possibility is that the mic works just fine, perhaps with a slight loss of performance (more hiss or lower max sound before distortion). This might be down to a minimum voltage, say around 15V to 20V for many real-world mics before the mic stops working totally. Other mics are much more sensitive, they may start making howling or crackling sounds or whatever -- remember we are giving the mic something it was not designed for. It is conceivable, but highly unlikely that something inside the mic may be damaged.
The MicroTrack gives around 30V which is a really stupid thing as it violates the standard. I would not put much trust into the people designing it. Regardless, there is quite a bit of real-world experience of which mics works and which not. I think there is a list at the manufacturers site. In effect, if your mic is on the list other people has tried it with the Microtrack and found that despite everything it works. Fair enough, as long as you understand what you are doing it is OK to break the rules.
Gunnar
Topic: Explain phantom power to a noob (Read 3334 times)