Will Phantom Power on the Ouputs Hurt Anything?

[Dave]

I’m plugging the five channels of outputs from an S5000 into the inputs of a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 (3rd gen, if that matters). The problem is that the last three channels on the Scarlett need to supply phantom power, and it’s only switchable in banks of four. However I wire it up, there has to be phantom power sent to at least one of the S5000’s inputs.

Will this hurt anything, or do I need to go get some phantom power blockers? I could probably get away with dropping the fifth output if I had to, but my word that phantom power button is really easy to bump, and I can’t find a way to disable it.

[Chris]

Probably wouldn’t hurt anything unless you plug a non-phantom powered vocal mic into it. Nice little shock to the lips if they get too close!

[KeithJ A&H]

@Dave

Phantom power should not be sent to the line outputs of the dLive or to any of our consoles/expanders.
You could use DI boxes or isolators, however, checking out the inputs of the 18i20 3rd gen, they look to be XLR/Jack Combi’s. So best option here would be to use XLR to TRS cables from the S5000 to the interface as the TRS connections won’t pass the phantom power.

Cheers,
Keith.

[Dave]

Nuts… Well, I guess I’ll get an XLR to TRS snake then. Thanks.

[Brian]

I’ve never looked into it, but surely someone makes a phantom power in-line filter that you can use to block the power from reaching the plugged in device.

[Dave]

Oh, they do, but the ones I’m aware of cost like $50 each so five of them would be as much as a new snake by itself. The XLR-XLR snake I’m using now is a 50 footer that we happen to not be using anywhere else right now. We’ll eventually need it for an event of something anyway… might as well replace it with an XLR-TRS snake and solve the problem without extra gear (and the extra cables to plug them all in).

[Author]

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