Will phantom power damage a preamp?

[SmattyG]

I have two preamps, both with phantom power, but I would like the ability to plug in more than 2 mics at a time. My mixing board has phantom power, so I could plug a third and 4th mic into that, except that then the preamps would be recieving phantom power as well. Will this damage the pre's?

[crazydoc]

Plug the line outs of the preamps into the line ins of the board - there's no phantom power to those inputs.

[SmattyG]

Ah, I see... and that won't change the signal quality? I always figured that it was better to use the XLR inputs...

[crazydoc]

The XLR's are only for low level outputs such as mics. Higher level outputs (called line level) such as preamps, other outboard gear, keyboards, etc should go to line level inputs. If you plug line levels into mic level ins, you can damage the preamps in the board due to the higher voltage producing a higher input current. We're talking here about the difference from a few millivolts, to a volt or two, which can produce 1000 times the current.

[christiaan]

Originally posted by crazydoc
We're talking here about the difference from a few millivolts, to a volt or two, which can produce 1000 times the current.

Don't worry about sending a volt or two into a preamp. Any decent preamp can handle that. Just keep the gain low.

[SmattyG]

Very interesting. Well, regardless of application, i will plug my line outs into the line in's on the board from now on. That explains why I ussually have the pre's on my board set to their lowest setting!! Thanks!