How do you wire an L-pad?

what is an L-Pad?

^^ "What is an L-pad?"

Resistors, one in parallel and one in series, to a driver that are used to attenuate the output (the resistors form an 'L' shape if seen in a schematic; and "pad" is a deriviitive of "padding", which describes attenuation of a driver to match the output of the other drivers in the network).  This is commonly used in passive crossovers to attenuate the tweeter, but the most common usage of the term "L-pad" is when there is a potentiometer included in the mix.  A commercial L-pad as described in this thread is one such that uses a pot to tailor the attenuation.  The power handling in question has to do with the abilities of the resistors in how much heat they are capable of dissipating. 

Phoenix Gold used to market a 4 ohm L-pad and I have two of them in the rear deck of my car.  After upgrading amplifiers I don't really need to use them to attenuate the rears, but they work well so it frees up my factory deck fader so that I can use it to attenuate the sub.

But you know how the progression of sound systems goes...you upgrade some things which makes something else unnecessary, but you use it anyway because it works just fine and you don't want to mess with it.

Thanks fo rthe speedy reply.  I rewired as per suggestion and now when i turn clockwise the center speaker gets louder, as hoped. 

putts

I was doing an SPL test and had the center speaker, the one with the L-pad, turned all the way down.  Smelled smoke, saw smoke, saw oil leaking out of the L-pad.   I was surprised to see this because I have a pretty weak system, 75 W rms/ch . 

The kickpanel speakers are only 3.5", so I still would like a center speaker for a filler speaker, especially for bass, but it is drowning out the little ones.  All the speakers are 4 ohm.  What are my options? 

oh yes, I see that my L-pad is too weak. I don't think that is the way to go.  I am surprised that 3 db is all a doubling ohms would reduce after reading here about how many folks want to reduce ohms for loudness. 

I guess if I could find a 16 ohm speaker it would cut down 6 db?   Should I wire it between the left+ and the right- or is there a more effective way?