L-pad ohm rating

[topdownsound]

My speakers have a nominal impedance of 6.3 ohms. If I wanted to replace the l-pads, would an 8 ohm l-pad work? Nothing wrong with the ones in the speakers, just trying to learn something new.

The l-pads in these speakers vary the dB from -3 to +3 for the mids and highs.

 

[loudnoises]

The lpad value is dependent on the driver it's padding (and how the crossoverb implemented it), not the overall resistance of the whole speaker. It's not unheard of to have a 16 ohm pad inside an 8 ohm speaker.

 

[topdownsound]

Ah! So I have to measure the driver directly. Thank you very much!!

 

[Mike_S]

What is the problem you are trying to solve? The speaker impedance has NOTHING to do with the L-Pads. They are independent. You also just said you have a variable one. That means you have a pot in there, that has adjustable resistance as you turn the knob.

If you want to change it's range, you have to find out what the rating of the pot is, then get one that either has more or less resistance depending if you want to get more of less db range.

 

[topdownsound]

I'm not trying to solve anything. Nothing is wrong with my speakers right now. I'm trying to learn about my vintage speakers and appreciate them more than at a simple "sounds good", which is where I've spent my life so far.

And looking down the road, this is an item, along with capacitors, that could potentially be an area that could show up as trouble and I'd like to know more so that maybe I can fix them myself. In another thread, I've been getting advice about capacitors so this is just a continuation of that curiosity into the hifi world.

To be fully candid, though - once I have my crossovers out to recap them, I plan to DeOxit the l-daps as a maintenance step. I have a 1976 Cadillac Eldorado. I found when restoring that, sometimes when you pull one thread, others get involved, so in case my DeOxit step leads to problems, I want to be prepared.