Phantom power into keyboard headphone jack

  • Cohan
Posted: Mon, 06/23/2008 - 16:03
I'm wondering how I should connect my digital piano to my soundcard. I have a 3.5mm <-> XLR cable so I can connect it directly to the XLR port of the soundcard mixer. However, I'm wondering what will happen if I forget to turn the phantom power off on the sound card? Will I fry the digital keyboard by pushing 48V into the headphone jack? If not I'll go with the XLR solution. (I'm biased towards XLR-cables. Somehow they feel better and more professional.) If there is a risk of harming the keyboard I'll look for some other solution.
‹ Monitors or Headphones Strange issue with emu Xboard25 ›

Post-Toasties

  • picothinker
  • 08/22/07
  • Thu, 06/26/2008 - 02:18
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I have some sort of professional keyboards, and I have some with walnut on the sides. I would choose unbalanced (a guitar cord) if that is what their output likes. A headphone jack is probably not the best output for recording.

Korg flakes

  • Quentin Harley
  • 05/24/07
  • Thu, 06/26/2008 - 07:13
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"A headphone jack is probably not the best output for recording" Exactly. Do your piano have another output (not the headphones) If not, it was probably never meant to be recorded in the first place... Beggars can't be choosers though!

Fried...

  • Quentin Harley
  • 05/24/07
  • Mon, 06/23/2008 - 19:44
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I don't think 48v across the left & right channels would be such a good idea. What other outputs does the keyboard have? Do you use a balanced 3 pole connection to the balanced xlr? Do you need stereo? You could stick a 3v zener and an LED in the connector to protect your device, and give a visible warning about the 48v...