Ever have to take the output of a playback device with only an 1/8" mini-socket for output. And its probably a headphone output too?

If you have one of the XLR microphone to 1/8" camera socket adapters, they work backwards very well.

Plug the 1/8" mini-jack into the earphone socket and plug an XLR cable into one of the XLR connectors on the adapter. Then plug the other end of the XLR cable (probably with a male-to-male converter) into your editing setup. Flip the Mono/Stereo switch on the adapter to Mono and you should be off and running.

Mike,
Most XLR adapters like the beachtek, Sign Video etc. do have impedance matching transformers in them. Does the transformer have any effect.

Also, is there any advantage of using the adapter instead of a direct cable that is a stereo mini to XLR male, which is only $10-$20.

The transformer works OK in this situation, allowing you to go from unbalanced to balanced and from mono to stereo.

The impedance match is not decent but for a lot of work, it won't matter. I don't know what the specs are in the XLR adapters so I cannot comment without looking into the specs.

In this case I was asked to come up with a method of playing a portable CD and cassette player into a PA system. Works OK.

I'd have to test to see if how much it affects the frequency response if at all.