Another of those never-ending questions about phase/polarity.

"I have a Finalizer and want to mix straight from it to a DAT (an older Tascam DA 30, which I got from ya'll, incidentally {Ed - Good answer!}). The Finalizer's XLR outs are pin 2 hot, but if I'm reading the manual correctly on the DAT, its ins and outs are pin 3 hot. Is this likely to cause phase problems? If so, what's the easiest way to correct it aside from rewiring the DAT's connectors? Is there an adapter that can plug into the DAT ins and outs to make them pin 2 hot? Finally, why in the world would a company like Tascam do this when practically everything else under the sun is pin 2 hot?"

That's a lot of questions, but I will tackle them all since you took the time to butter me up by telling me you bought the stuff from us (hey, I do look you guys up in our database and make sure Sweetwater customers get preferential treatment).

Yes, the original DA30 is pin 3 hot. The DA30 was built at the tail end of years of debate about which pin was the proper hot (or positive) pin on XLR connectors. You'd think something so mundane would have been standardized years ago, but such is life. It is still possible to find pin 3 hot equipment brand new today. In the 1970's and early 1980's pin 3 hot gear was actually (slightly) more common, but the debate had shifted in favor of pin 2 by 1990 and now "almost" everyone makes equipment according to the pin 2 "standard."

So, if you are connecting to your DA30 from the Finalizer with analog connections you will be reversing the polarity (by not changing the relative phase) of your audio signal. The significance of such a polarity reversal to an entire audio signal is a hotly debated topic and depending upon which side of the argument you are on it may not even matter (see our TTOTD from 4/16/98 for more info). There's no question that reversing ONE channel of a two channel audio signal would be horrific, but when you reverse both channels they still stay in phase with each other so the consequences are much more subtle. You ought to listen to this sometime to formulate your own opinion about its significance. It's easy to try this with your home stereo. Just reverse the leads going to both speakers and see if you can hear a difference.

So let's say you do care about this polarity change. There are adaptors you can purchase that will allow you to reverse pin 2 and 3. You can also just build yourself a couple of cables that reverse them (just be sure to label them). The DA30 could be modified so it matches up with the rest of the world, but since its XLR connectors are soldered directly to the main circuit board this would be best done by a qualified technician.

Of course you can circumvent this entire problem by just using the AES digital output on the Finalizer directly into the DA30 AES input. In theory the polarity of those connections don't matter, but I'm anal enough that I would have to have it right so I would modify the cable going between them.