Q: Someone was talking about an XLR cable they made with pins 2 and 3 reversed for use with a Pin 3 hot box. It made me wonder if reversing the polarity of an XLR cable or connection would screw up phantom power?
A: No, with phantom power, the same voltage is carried on both pin 2 and pin 3 of the XLR. There is no “polarity” to phantom power. It will function just fine.
By the way, we ran a series of Tech Tips on cable polarity and wiring in January of 2000.