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
OH YEAH!

New 16 Ohm L-Pads installed, back to wonderful (more wonderful?).
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the whole story

1. Ruin a good thing:

L-Pads removed as advised. Actually, they were 8 ohm pots, I didn’t know better way back when I replaced the original 16 ohm L-Pads. The Pots worked as needed, but altered the resistance shown to crossover, whereas the original L-Pads maintained 16 ohms shown to the crossover.

Speakers without controls were very screechy, horrible. Used RLC-1 to cut treble, at least sounded listenable while looking for a solution.

2. Research:

The Fisher President II I inherited used all Electro-Voice drivers, L-Pads, Crossover. They are in my new enclosures.

The Vintage Fisher consoles, and Electro-voice speakers were designed with L-Pads: AT37 (16 ohm) or AT38 (8 ohm). Two way had 1; Three way had 2 (Brilliance and Presence, like mine).

Adjust from Normal for room and personal taste.

NORMAL Room: Center position: Half attenuated.
LIVE, BRIGHT Room: add attenuation progressively
DULL, DEAD Room, reduce attenuation progressively
EARS AGE: reduce tweeter attenuation as ability to hear highs progressively reduces.

Model EV-SIX had a unique 5 position step-type attenuation control using resistors. As they were not progressive, 5 frequency graphs were shown in the engineering bulletin.

3. Re-install new L-Pads:

Ordered High Quality Pots, thinking they were L-Pads, returned them.

Ordered 16 ohm L-Pads.

Installed L-PADS yesterday. RLC-1 tone control back to neutral.

OH YEAH!


Recently, for fun in another thread I went to hifishark, searched:

Vintage Speakers, sorted price high to low.

I found MANY vintage speakers that provided adjustment, L-Pads, rotating or sliding switches, changeable connections to resistor boards, 

MANY,

IMO, it is wrong not to provide a means to adjust 2/3/4 way speakers in their listening space. Mine are quite difficult, but

precise stepped resistor networks ought to be easy enough.
Fixed resistors always sound better for trimming driver output. With older speaker designs L-pads were needed to make the speakers more versatile. Fixed resistors on switches is a great replacement to L-pads. Tone controls definitely don't cut it, even with a midrange control added to the normal bass and treble. 
fiesta,

did you read this whole thing, or just respond to my recent post?

Ideally resistors are 'better', but in practice, I'll settle on quality L-Pads for their flexibility.

modern makers are not offering any methods to adapt to the unknown space their speakers TRY to be perfect in. Maybe they all own stock in room treatment companies!

I found the resistor network Electro-Voice created for the E-V Model Six, higher up in this thread. 5 specific switchable response curves!

L-Pads are infinitely adjustable, notched L-Pads would be nice because they are hard to match L to R.

Anyone can twirl a dial, make a decision that's right for them, they cannot make a resistor network for themselves, and then not adaptable as we age and out hearing shifts.