wolf825 said:
The A&H also has individual
channel 48v Phantom where the Soundcraft is global phantom--and individual
channel phanton is good to have cause if the glbal phantom should die--all your channels die--where if you loose a
channel of phantom you can
switch channels.
Well, I agree that it's a benefit, but for an altogether different reason. I think you're misinterpreting what the global vs. individual labels mean; they refer to the
switching of the
phantom power, not the
supply. The phantom supply is still global with individually switchable phantom on channels, it's just that there is a
switch at each
channel instead of one before all the channels are connected. They're still all coming off the same 48V
power supply, and are wired the same. In fact, arguably, there are more points of failure, since you've now got X number of switches--with a minimum of twice as many solder joints and the added mechanical connection--added in where there used to be only two solder joints per
channel.
With global phantom, if one
channel goes, you can still move to another
channel, since each
channel is hooked up in parallel. If the actual
power supply goes, you're out of luck across the board no matter whether the phantom switching is global or individual.
What you do benefit from, however, is that you can use
line level XLR devices and ribbon microphones, which can be severely damaged by
phantom power. On a
console with global switching of
phantom power, you need to use an
adapter with a
transformer or a 1/4" input for these input sources (and that's assuming that the 1/4" is a separate input...some low end consoles just parallel the jacks, which is very bad!
--A