To be clear, the American standard is pin 1 ground, pin 2 **noninverting**, pin 3 **inverting**.
There is no 'cold' and 'hot'; both signal pins carry equal importance.
The Euro standard reverses the phase- the assignments of pins 2 and 3 are reversed.
So if you just hook up, the worst that can happen is the absolute polarity of your system might be inverted, assuming that the amp does not invert otherwise. However, exactly 50% of all recordings are inverted polarity, so this is really a non-issue. The only time you can really hear this sort of thing is when the recording is done with 2 or 3 mics in a true stereo pattern. Even then you need to compare to see which way is right (an inversion switch is handy for this as inverting the speaker connections of both channels is a bit of a pain in the rear).
Bottom line: don't worry about it!
There is no 'cold' and 'hot'; both signal pins carry equal importance.
The Euro standard reverses the phase- the assignments of pins 2 and 3 are reversed.
So if you just hook up, the worst that can happen is the absolute polarity of your system might be inverted, assuming that the amp does not invert otherwise. However, exactly 50% of all recordings are inverted polarity, so this is really a non-issue. The only time you can really hear this sort of thing is when the recording is done with 2 or 3 mics in a true stereo pattern. Even then you need to compare to see which way is right (an inversion switch is handy for this as inverting the speaker connections of both channels is a bit of a pain in the rear).
Bottom line: don't worry about it!