curious question...

I was shooting at a concert last week and on some points the sound was too hot due to the giant amplifier next to the camera.

is it possible to ruin the audio input in the XL1 by recording hot sound or
capturing sound next to a high sound source?

Good question! Though I would be more worried about my ears. Just be sure to lower the audio level of the XL1. I was at a wedding recently and was standing next to the lousy DJ's loud amp and of course the audio was completely distorted. I then reduced the recording level on my XL1 by an incredible amount and the audio layed down on tape sounded great. Don't know if repeated exposure would blow up the microphone (so to speak) or not. I don't think the XL1 itself or anything other than the mic can be damaged.

Joe,

was the DJ's music still distorted? I would think that if the source is distorted then lowering the imput level would just make for quieter distorted audio.

right..

i did lower the levels and it did sound good!

though before i lowered the sound level it was very hot and hope i didnt
damage anything, kinda like when you can burn your CCD by shooting
directly into the sun.

Extremely loud sound might hurt a mic, but your ears would be toast too, so that is not likley to be an issue. Loud output from a otherwise working mic is unlikely to damage the XL1 mic preamps.

If you are in loud venues consider using the MIC ATT setting. This will reduce the chance of overloading the mic preamps (could cause clipping) The preamps are ahead of the manual gain controls.

Adrain-

No the sound was distorted on the tape because I was standing next to a very loud amp. The level meters on the XL1 were topped out the entire time. I turned the level down on the XL1 until the meters had quite a bit of movement to them again and suddenly the audio was super clean.