L-pad component quality question

[Loquah]

I'm currently using a prototype, DIY, fixed resistor L-pad box to adapt speaker taps to use with headphones. Before I make the final version, I wanted to check something please:

Do the resistors used in parallel (to drain some voltage to ground) matter in terms of their sonic quality or only the resistors in the signal path to the headphones?

To explain why I'm asking, I am looking at buying high quality resistors for the two active leads that will connect to the headphone socket (L+ and R+), but I was thinking that some cheap ceramic resistors for the ground connection would be fine because I believe they should not influence the sound quality. Is that a fair assumption or am I missing something?

[Paul Joppa]

You are talking about effects so subtle that many engineers regard them as imaginary  :^)  I've heard enough of such effects myself that I don't doubt what people hear, even when I don't have any plausible theory. But that doesn't mean I can answer questions like that. Experimentation is the only way to determine whether you can hear a difference, or whether if you do, which one is better.

I will say that there is no known technical reason to distinguish a "signal path" from a "ground path" - the electrons flow in current loops involving all components. So without other evidence, I would use resistors of equal quality.

[Loquah]

You are talking about effects so subtle that many engineers regard them as imaginary  :^)  I've heard enough of such effects myself that I don't doubt what people hear, even when I don't have any plausible theory. But that doesn't mean I can answer questions like that. Experimentation is the only way to determine whether you can hear a difference, or whether if you do, which one is better.

I will say that there is no known technical reason to distinguish a "signal path" from a "ground path" - the electrons flow in current loops involving all components. So without other evidence, I would use resistors of equal quality.

That's good enough for me, Paul - thank you! A few extra dollars won't make a big difference in the scheme of things and I have some cheap ceramics here already so now I guess I CAN try both and see