So, both Americans and Europeans
were inconsistent between microphones and everything else


Back in the 1970's I attended the AES Convention where the membership voted to
adopt the standard of "Pin 2 Hot." This was done largely at the request of the
groups UK and European members.

Up until this point, most American gear was wired Pin 3 hot. This change of
convention to the new standard was very inconvenient, but viewed by most in the
US as something we simply had to do. Or so we thought. Shortly after the new
convention was adopted, many UK manufacturers, Soundcraft and Midas among
others, started delivering consoles with "Pin 3 Hot." I've owned several of
them. What possessed them to switch is still a mystery to me. Some were even
wired with balanced inputs, pin two positive, but outputs unbalanced pin 3 hot.
The question of whether pin two was connected to ground or just left floating,
connected to nothing at all was also un-standardized. Some were, some weren't.
You see, in those days it was fairly common to have balanced inputs and
unbalanced outputs via an XLR. This made for many years of confusion, and
the need to carry around lots of polarity reversing adapters am "magic" adapter
cables to make things work.

You younger guys take a lot for granted these days when you buy a workable
mixer for well under $500, and everything is more or less like it should be.
It wasn't always the case.

Chuck