Quick answer: On a male XLR, view the connector from the mating face, with the pins toward you and the latch at the top. Pin 1 is shield, pin 2 is hot and pin 3 is cold. Wire pin 1 to the shield, pin 2 to the in-phase conductor and pin 3 to the out-of-phase conductor, then verify continuity before closing the shell.
Male XLR Pinout: Numbering, Wiring and the Mirror Trap
A male XLR connector carries the pins, and that single fact makes its pinout harder to read than the female version. The numbers are moulded into the insert, but they are easy to misread when the shell is in your hand and the cable is already stripped. Most reversed polarity faults in audio come from wiring a male plug while looking at it from the wrong side. This guide fixes the reference point first, then covers the wiring and the check that proves it. Pin numbers alone are not enough.
Which Half Has the Pins
Male XLR connectors have three protruding pins inside a barrel, and female connectors have three recessed sockets. Male is normally the output side and female the input side, following a convention that began with microphones. The cable plug at the microphone end is female so that the delicate pins sit on the equipment, protected inside a chassis. Understanding that convention explains why a male plug is usually wired to feed a device input.
Male Pins, Female Sockets
Look into the connector: pins mean male, holes mean female. On a cable, the two ends are usually different, so one end is male and the other female. A male to male cable is a special case used where a device breaks the convention, and it cannot mate with another male connector without a gender changer.
Why Outputs Are Usually Male
An output presents signal, so the pins sit on the device where they are less likely to be damaged by a dropped cable. The cable end that reaches an output is therefore female. When a device reverses this, the panel is the authority and the cable must be built to match it.
Reading the Numbers
Pin numbers are moulded beside the contacts, but moulded text is small and often obscured by shadow. The reliable method is positional rather than textual. With the pins facing you and the latch at the top, the arrangement forms a shallow triangle, and the numbering runs in a fixed order that is consistent across manufacturers. Learn the position once and the text becomes a confirmation rather than the primary source.
Viewed from the Mating Face
Always orient the connector as the mating plug will see it. That means pins toward you, latch up. Working from the solder side instead reverses the apparent order and is the most common cause of a plug wired with pins 2 and 3 exchanged.
The Mirror Trap
The female connector is the mirror image of the male. If you wire a male plug while looking at a female pinout diagram, the two signal pins swap. The resulting cable works, passes signal, and inverts polarity, which is inaudible on a single channel and obvious once two channels share a space. Keep two separate diagrams, or annotate one clearly as male.
Wiring a Male Plug
Slide the shell and the boot onto the cable before stripping anything, which is the step most often forgotten. Strip the jacket to the length marked on the insert, trim the shield, then prepare the two signal conductors. Keep the shield short and land it on pin 1 with a proper clamp or solder cup, not a stray strand. Tighten the cable clamp on the jacket rather than on the conductors.
Pin 1 Shield, Pin 2 Hot, Pin 3 Cold
Pin 1 takes the shield and the chassis connection. Pin 2 takes the in-phase conductor, commonly red. Pin 3 takes the out-of-phase conductor, commonly black or blue. Colour conventions vary between cable makers, so confirm with a continuity test rather than trusting the colour.
Strain Relief and Shell Contact
The cable clamp must grip the jacket, and the shell must contact the connector body so the shield is continuous through the housing. A shell that is loose or painted at the contact point breaks the shield path, which shows up as hum that disappears when the plug is touched.
Verifying a Male Termination
A finished plug takes under a minute to verify and saves a show. Test continuity from each pin to the far end, then test between adjacent pins for shorts, then flex the cable at the boot while watching the reading. The flex test catches a conductor that is only partly captured, which is the fault that survives a static check and fails on stage. Test every cable the same way, and record the result on the cable itself.
Continuity and Short Checks
With the meter on continuity, confirm pin 1 to shield, pin 2 to its conductor and pin 3 to its conductor at the other end. Then confirm no reading between pins 1 and 2, 2 and 3, or 1 and 3. A reading of a few ohms where there should be none indicates a strand bridging two cups.
Symptoms of a Reversed Pair
A reversed pair produces a signal that sounds normal alone but cancels low frequencies when combined with a correctly wired channel. On a stereo pair the image collapses toward the centre. If a mix sounds thin only when two sources are summed, check polarity before changing anything else.
Male XLR Pin Assignment
| Pin | Signal | Common colour | Connects to | If wrong |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shield and chassis | Bare or drain wire | Connector shell, input ground | Hum, no rejection |
| 2 | Hot, in phase | Red | Input pin 2 | Polarity inverted |
| 3 | Cold, out of phase | Black or blue | Input pin 3 | Polarity inverted |
| Shell | Shield continuity | None | Latch and body | Intermittent hum |
| 2 and 3 swapped | Fault | Fault | Fault | Cancellation when summed |
Real-World Application Scenarios
A studio building its own microphone leads wires male plugs at the preamp end, and checks every one with a continuity test because a reversed pair is invisible on a single channel. A live company reterminating cables after a failure keeps a male pinout card taped inside the work case, so nobody works from memory at two in the morning. A church installing a permanent run to a pulpit uses male plugs at the rack end and labels each cable with its polarity result. A repair bench keeps a known good reference cable to compare against, which is faster than reading a diagram.
Related Guides on This Site
The female side is set out in female xlr pinout and the general assignment in xlr pinout. For the comparison of the two halves, see male vs female xlr, and for assembly practice xlr wiring.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: Which pin is positive on a male XLR?
A: Pin 2 is the in-phase or hot signal. Pin 3 carries the out-of-phase signal and pin 1 is the shield. Reversing pins 2 and 3 inverts polarity without stopping the signal.
Q: How do I read the pin numbers on a male XLR?
A: Hold the connector with the pins facing you and the latch at the top, then follow the numbering moulded beside the contacts. Working from the solder side instead reverses the apparent order and causes wiring errors.
Q: Is a male XLR an input or an output?
A: By convention it is an output on the equipment and the cable end that feeds a device input. The rule is not universal, so check the panel label when a device is unfamiliar.
Q: Why does my cable work but sound thin when mixed?
A: A reversed pair on one cable inverts that channel. Alone it sounds normal, and summed with a correct channel it cancels bass. Test polarity with a meter before replacing any equipment.
Q: Can I use a male to male XLR cable?
A: Only where a device has a female output that breaks the usual convention. Two male connectors cannot mate, so a male to male cable is a special purpose item rather than a standard stock cable.