Quote Originally Posted by Altec Best View Post
An L-pad is nothing more than a variable resistor that allows you to increase or decrease the Mid-High Frequencies. ]
Technically. that is misleading.

A resistor is a resistor, an L-Pad is a network of resistors

"The L pad does this by having two separate rheostats connected in an "L' configuration (hence the name). One rheostat is connected in series with the loudspeaker and, as the [[Electrical resistance|resistance]] of this rheostat increases, less power is coupled into the loudspeaker and the [[loudness]] of sound produced by the loudspeaker decreases. The second rheostat is connected between the input and ground (earth). As the first rheostat increases in resistance, the second rheostat decreases in resistance, keeping the load impedance (presented at the input of the L pad) constant. The second rheostat usually has a special ''taper'' (function of resistance versus rotation) to accommodate the need for constant input impedance."

Cheap L-Pads may just be a rheostat, which is why people pull them and put in fixed pads.