CALSOD user here since 1988, and I still miss CALSOD's ability to see multiple angles at once that the free tools don't provide. The freebies allow quick component changes and seeing trends on the fly, CALSOD shows a static view at numerous angles. A free tool that combined these all together would be killer, that's the secret sauce to quick optimization and free-wheeling experimentation.
Personally I'm a much bigger fan of Xsim than PCD. Faster to use, better UI and far more flexible (and potentially more accurate). For example, PCD doesn't allow inductive resistances in parallel traps so you have to fudge it by changing the resistor value. It also limits the size of the network and topology to a number of static layouts. Xsim has a true spice type layout so is far more powerful and flexible. It also calculates current/power through components which is very handy. PCD does have the one value of adding target curves based on fixed alignments (BU, LR etc), and that can be handy some times.
Love to see XSim support multiple angles at once, and target overlay curves. It would make it a perfect passive crossover designer.
Very true, which makes Xsim a breath of fresh air.
However, if you don' know much about crossovers, PCD can help you understand what is going on. Since the topology is fixed, it's easy to quickly try things to see what they do. Just using default flat 8 ohm impedances can give you a nice idea of what each part of the crossover does. Then load in FRD and/or ZMA files to understand what happens with real speakers.
PCD is a great learning tool.
Not exactly speaker centric, but for a free tool to learn and play with passive and active crossovers, the online schematic and circuit simulator at PartSim is really cool. DB and phase, plus with a little creativity you can simulate multiple crossovers simultaneously and chart the differences.
Yes, I don't know anything about making a passive XO from scratch so the fixed topology and fill in the blank approach of PCD is great.
You can import overlays Ito Xsim - just create an FRD overlay file and read it in. Plot it as on of the 3 traces available. But agreed that a generator in Xsim to make target curves would be nice.
You can import overlays Ito Xsim - just create an FRD overlay file and read it in. Plot it as on of the 3 traces available. But agreed that a generator in Xsim to make target curves would be nice.
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