Q for sound techs/audio junkies

[rival]

you know those 3 prong microphone adapters in some buildings, ie a meeting room, where you plug in a mic, and viola, sound, which a mic like this would plug into... what would happen if you shorted (either pos to neg, pos to drain, neg to drain) the prongs? does anything on the amp racks malfunction/break?
amp racks are ready for use, but do they have to be ready for a signal for anything to happen? what happens in any possible case?

tia

edit: spalling!!@

 

[Ranger]

I think the mic input is unpowered so its not a problem.
The drain is a shield, and the other two wires are a balanced pair.
Andy

 

[rival]

whew, i hope you're right...

heres the story deal thing

today at work i was to unsolder the drain wire on all the mic jacks, reason being the drain is a bare conductor, it was bare for about 1" out of the plenum jacket, a inspector or someone didnt want this, because the drain can come in contact with the pos and neg leads, shorting out the mic, making it inoperable, so i had to unsolder it, slip on a teflon jacket, resolder it and shrink wrap it, during this process, the drain occasionally touched the pos and neg leads

and thanks for any additional input

and you're probably all thinking 'why is he doing that if he doesnt know anything about the connections, etc'

well im a apprentice electrician, and havent learned about low voltage audio yet, i was doin some work for the sound techs..

blech im rambling

 

[Ranger]

Well i have done this for a while, communications guy that does electrical.
I never leave less than 1/16 of an inch exposed, damn QA people
love the shrink wrap!!
Andy

 

[RaySun2Be]

It really shouldn't be a problem, as someone should have made sure all the equipment was OFF if you were going around soldering all the MIC connections.