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XLR Connector : Beginner’s Guide for XLR Connectors


What is XLR connector?
An XLR connector is a type of electrical connector used mostly in professional video and audio electronics cabling applications such as for stage microphones and other analog sound device, as opposed to home audio/video device using RCA connectors. It is characterized by a large cylindrical connector body, commonly with three pins or prongs, but other variants have anywhere from two to six pins.

The XLR Connectors was an incremental variant that started from the Type O connector made by Cannon (ITT Cannon), which featured an oval-shaped body and receptacle with three pins and a latch locking mechanism. Its actual predecessor was the X series without a locking mechanism, and by 1950 one was added and it became the XL series and after that In 1955, the female connector was designed to have synthetic rubber insulation surrounding the female contacts and this was now the XLR connector.

As with all kinds of XLR connectors, there are a male and a female version. The later is designed to have the ground pin (or pin 1) create contact first during insertion and last during removal. This make sure that solely minimal noise is picked up during mating of the connectors, allowing for live hot plugging or swapping without any major noise going to the speakers like as the case with RCA connectors.

Design of XLR Connectors:

XLR connectors are available in female and male versions in both cable and chassis mounting designs, a total of four styles. This is slightly unusual as many other connector designs omit one of the designs (typically a chassis mounting male connector).
The female XLR Connectors are designed to first connect pin 1 (the ground pin), before the other pins create contact, when a male XLR connector is inserted. With the ground connection is done before the signal lines are connected, the insertion (and removal) of XLR connectors in live equipment is possible without picking up external signals (as basically happens with, for example, RCA connectors).

Patterns of XLR Connector :

Basically there are five types of pattern available in the XLR connector which is given below :

·         Three Pin XLR Connector : Three-pin XLR connectors are the most common style and are an industry standard for balanced audio signals. The great majority of professional microphones use the XLR connector for audio purpose. This type of XLR connectors are used to interconnect powered speakers with line-level signals. This use of 3 pin XLR connectors commonly seen in PA system applications and seems to be growing more common.

·         Four Pin XLR Connector : Four pin Connectors (XLR4) are the standard connector for intercom headsets, such as systems made by ClearCom and Telex. In XLR4, Two pins are used for the mono headphone signal and two pins for the unbalanced microphone signal.

·         Five Pin XLR Connector : Five-pin XLR connectors are the standard for DMX512 digital lighting controls.

·         Six Pin Connector : They are used for dual channel intercom systems and stage lighting control applications, another common use is professional stereo headset with balanced microphone.

·         Seven Pin XLR Connector : They are used to connect some valve (tube) condenser microphones to their power supplies (carrying signal, polarisation voltage, heater and HT).


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