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Is there any meaning to the designations such as L03C or J04C?
I get that some are finned/not finned and there resin versus metallic, and there are a couple of slightly different shape but there seems to be a huge number of options at various price points outside of this so is it possible to figure out which is "the best" or offers "best value" just from selecting by these numbers???
(R8050 Ultegra and GRX 400 brakes, btw)
There are also different backing materials - Ti, Steel and Aluminium
(R8050 Ultegra and GRX 400 brakes, btw)
The current Shimano pads for either of those calipers are...
K05S-RX - resin, non finned
K04S - metal, non finned
L05A-RX - resin, finned
L04C - metal, finned
...is it possible to figure out which is “the best” or offers “best value” just from selecting by these numbers???
Using J04C pads in your example.
The first letter is the pad shape, "Narrow type J" in that example, a bigger number is a newer pad lining and "C" is what Shimano call a composite backing. Your example doesn't give either a pad material or fin detail
Click on "Notice", "Technical Features" and "Characteristics" https://bike.shimano.com/en-EU/product/service-upgradeparts/xtr-m9000/WO-IBPJ04CMFA.html