Phantom PowerPhantom power is simply an external power supply required by the capacitor elements inside a condenser microphone. It is provided by the mic preamps located either on your mixer board or other audio interface. "Not so fast, Skippy... that sounded like you read that straight from a textbook. Why don't you try that again!" Ok, it's something that you need if you wanna use a condenser mic. Better?!? The picture below shows what the switch looks like on a mixing console. Notice how the main power can be selected independently so that you are free to choose when to unleash the voltage of this beast.
It could also be because it is provided down the audio paths of the XLR connector without altering the audio signal. But this sounds more like "Stealth Power" to me... which in turn sounds like a sweet 80's WWF tag team name. Whatever the reason, just know that you need it if you want to power your condenser mic. The good news is that it is a standard feature on most mixers and audio interfaces. This is good feature to check for when narrowing down your mixer / audio interface selection... not having this option will effectively eliminate the condenser mic from your arsenal.
Return from Phantom Power to Condenser Microphones
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