Assume the target is to let the woofers play louder than the midrange and the tweeter, in three ways speakers. Instead of applying the L-Pads to the midrange and tweeter, one way I could figure out is to add a second woofer in parallel with the original woofer. This will affect the SPL of woofers’ section by increasing it about 6dB. However, if I want merely 3 or 4.5dB, is there any approach to achieve the goal, without introducing the L-Pads or any attenuations on MF and HF drivers?
Woofers in 3ways could be adjusted in the cabinet for floor proximity, or in room to boundary proximity or both. Adjacent floor at average wall distances can actually achieve almost full BSC. More distance from floor (closer to floor than average) could likely yield as you are targeting.
The autoformer or autotransformer would need to be quite substantial in size and mass and likely expensive to keep the stepped up bass range from rolling off in the low end.
The autoformer or autotransformer would need to be quite substantial in size and mass and likely expensive to keep the stepped up bass range from rolling off in the low end.
As Allen says, line level before amplification is probably the most cost effective way of attenuating the bass. Ideally you want your bass and midrange driver(s) to be 4dB or so more sensitive than the tweeter for baffle step. If you really need the extra 6dB of headroom / peak the extra woofer offers, get a more sensitive midrange or tweeter to match. Padding woofers just wastes amplifier power and requires resistors that can handle potentially 150+ watts