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L-Pads. Speakers Awful Without Them, New Ones Ordered

I removed the L-Pads, the tweeters are way too bright, screechy above mids. Disturbing. Played my best source: R2R, Sgt. Peppers. Normally magnificent. Unlistenable!

Using my Chase Remote Control to cut Treble temporarily, until new L-Pads arrive.

I ordered these 16 ohm pads:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/153892668925

mine don’t have the issues he discusses, my insulation is modern, crossovers are tar filled metal cans, not much heat in 6.3 cu ft; these and originals were large ceramic body.

Will put the tweeter ’Brilliance’ ones in first, listen. Then add ’Presence’, listen, decide: leave in, or out. IN more than likely. They (orig and 1 set of replacements) have been IN for 62 years.

My original bronze ones came from original Fisher console, they were a custom version, still labeled ’Brilliance’ and ’Presence’.
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Many of these old Electro-Voice designs had L-Pads (16 ohm used AT37 Attenuators; 8 ohm used AT38). 2 way have one. 3 way designs have two: ’Brilliance’ and ’Presence’.

You can balance the drivers to each other, and to each space, and as you age, ability to hear highs diminishes, you can creep the tweeters up speck by speck. Imbalance due to irregular spacing: adjust each individually

I’m not going to measure and install a fixed resistor, I want future adjustability.

’L-Pads: Terrible Idea’. Bullshite, everyone who ever heard them loves them!

And, let’s not forget, the originals, with L-Pads, first one mono speaker, later two for stereo, are the designs that made these companies successful.






elliottbnewcombjr
elliottbnewcombjr OP
5,330 posts
 
I think, 'Functionally/Flexibility' L-Pads, especially a good one, is better,

Because they have alway sounded great, adjusted for 3 different spaces over the years, I would never sacrifice future flexibility for supposed/measured perfection.
lewm
13,010 posts
 
If you have a treble control on your preamplifier, which I might guess you do have on the Mac MX110, then you can achieve much the same effect as with an L-pad.  But far be it from me to rain on your parade; I admit to my own set of eccentricities that defy pure logic.  And I would never pretend there is any such thing as "perfection" in this pursuit.  If I recommend Mills resistors, some other guy would say that some other brand or type is superior.
oldhvymec
5,101 posts
 
Keep the L-Pads.. Everything I’ve ever built has L-pads for the highs.
They need to be maintained, though.. Mine last 30 plus years.
Ribbons and planars for me.. 300hz to 30khz. L-pads just work..

I’ll go further to say you’ll get better sound, that you like, instead of trying to tame a sound you don’t.. Different approach, and it’s old but it works the best for me.. I think they were removed just like tone control. It cost more and there is a potential for failure.. I suppose that's a good reason from a production point of view..

Regards
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,793 posts
 
If you have a treble control on your preamplifier, which I might guess you do have on the Mac MX110, then you can achieve much the same effect as with an L-pad.
@lewm This isn't correct. The preamp treble control won't control the tweeter output. Its a bit different. The reason the control is there is the same as on your Sound Labs (prior to your modifications); the voltage response of the amplifier is an unknown so the tweeter level (or midrange level) control is there to allow the speaker to accommodate the amplifier.


This idea took a while to go away- from the late 1950s till the early 1970s, by which time the idea of 'voltage driven' loudspeakers had taken over.


lewm
13,010 posts
 
OK, but I was more responding to Elliot saying that the sound was too tipped up in the treble, when he tried removing the L-pad entirely. Yes, the mechanism is different, but I thought he might ameliorate the problem with his treble control.  Anyway, the L-pad has apparently become an upgrade in the eyes of some, and I will exit the discussion as gracefully as possible.
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