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how can I find the polarity out from my XLR

hi,

I've a little problem ;-(
I'd like do check what are the polarities out of the pin 2 & 3 of my XLR.

why ?
because the User manual of my cd player says
1=ground
2=(+)
3=(-)
and at the back of my cd player it's wrote
1=ground
2=(-)
3=(+)

how can I do to check exactly "where is" the (+) or (hot) pin

thanks for your help
laurentd
laurentd OP
8 posts
 
> GMC
yes I'd email my problem to Sony ... waiting for the reply
vantageaudio
182 posts
 
You really need a 'scope to double-check this. However sometimes there is a slight DC offset voltage on pins 2 and 3 from some cd (or DAC) XLR outputs. If you have a DVM with reasonable resolution you could try and measure on a low DC volts range across pins 2 and 3 and then reverse the probes and compare. This may give you an indication as to which one is "hot".

If you try this, usual dis-claimers apply! Regards, Richard
ikarus
113 posts
 
Just ignore it. According to statistics, 50% of all CD's are recorded in wrong polarity anyway.
slartibartfast
100 posts
 
A lot of European gear is pin 3 hot, especially older pro audio gear... your pinouts are probably correct on the back of the Sony and not what the user manual says...
stehno
1,453 posts
 
As I recall, the earliest version of the Sony SCD-1 had pin 3 hot, but they did come out with a later version. One of the changes was to make pin 2 hot.
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