I got this from Schoeps. I doubt that they are different from other mic manufacturers. Also, Schoeps mentions mixing consoles. I doubt knowledge of this would be confined only to mixing consoles. I have had both SD and Schoeps say it is OK. You can say what you want, I am betting on these guys. If you have doubts about your hardware, why not write the manufacturers instead of gassing about it? Unless you just want to gas about it rather than get a reliable valid answer.
"Hello Robert,
as long as the phantom power is within specifications (i.e. 48V ± 10% @ 6.8kOhms) it makes no difference for our microphones if powering is on or off during plugging.
With no microphone connected the input capacitors of the mixing console are charged to 48V. The very first moment of connecting a microphone may be similiar to a short circuit as inside the microphone there are capacitors who are discharged to zero. The designers of both microphone and mixing console know this effect and will integrate some means of protection like zener diodes or resistors or chokes. The zener diodes will prevent the voltage getting too high for certain components. The resistors will prevent a too high current and the chokes reduce the shoulder of the peak.
A damage may occurr if someone "modifies" his power supply or creates one of his own ignoring such protection rules. In such cases it is highly recommended to plug and unplug the microphone only with the powering switched off. We know users who drive their microphones with up to 70V why ever. For our microphones this will lead to no advantage at all but to a very high risk to damage them.
My personal experience with plugging and unplugging SCHOEPS microphones since more than 20 years that I am working here:
I never switch off the supply and I never had any defect by doing this.
With kind regards
Bernhard Vollmer
Head of Quality Control & Customer Care
Phone +49-721-9432021
Mail vollmer@schoeps.de
_________________________________________________________
SCHOEPS Mikrofone GmbH, Spitalstr. 20, DE 76227 Karlsruhe
Amtsgericht Mannheim, HRB Nr. 102442, Geschäftsführer: Ulrich Schoeps"