All that a phantom power supply does is supply operating power to the microphone. It doesn't amplify the microphone's signal to line level. So at its output, you basically have the same kind of signal (in terms of levels and impedance) that you'd have if your microphone hadn't needed powering in the first place.
Battery-operated 48-Volt phantom power supplies definitely still exist. One robust, relatively low-cost supply that I've used is from Denecke. If I had the cash sitting around I would give the Core Sound supply a try, since it runs on two 9-Volt batteries and lets you hot-swap the batteries one by one for as long as the gig continues, if you have enough batteries.
Personally I'd give anything made by ART the hairy eyeball since their mike preamps are such train wrecks. Read the specifications with a fine-toothed comb for sure. Phantom powering is NOT a place to cut corners; there's an international standard and the microphone manufacturers design their microphones on the assumption that the standard will be complied with in all essentials. In many cases a microphone will limp along or fail if it's not powered correctly, and that tends to be more the case with better microphones; relatively crappy ones may be tolerant of variations in the power supply, while a substandard power supply tends to make the better microphones turn crappy.
The other problem you face is that standard phantom powering is defined only for microphones with balanced outputs, while the inputs of your recorder are apparently unbalanced. So you either need to (a) arrange a balanced input for your recorder, or else (b) unbalance the signal from your microphone. (a) is preferable from a technical standpoint (i.e. lowest overall noise and likelihood of picking up interference), and there are ways of doing it which work for all types of microphone, while (b) might fit better with "stealth recording." But with approach (b) different connection specifics would need to be observed for different brands and models of microphone; the type of phantom supply that you're working with would be a factor as well. It's unfortunately somewhat complicated and despite some people's wishful thinking and willingness to stab in the dark at the problem, there's no one general solution that always works.
If you can use a mike preamp that has a balanced input and phantom powering built in, and that either has an unbalanced output (e.g. Grace Design M101) or a balanced output that can easily be unbalanced (e.g. Sound Devices MP-1, which has the advantage of small size and internal batteries), then you solve both problems in a nearly ideal way from a technical standpoint--but then you have one more box to feed and clothe.
--best regards
Topic: Need help with XLR Phantom Powered mic. (Read 2109 times)