Mid/longterm investment in good scope ?

[othello]

Hi all,

First of all, great forum, lots of info and hope to contribute too !

I'm a beginner but would like to invest in good equipment for not only the shortterm while learning.
Can some one recommend a good scope with a budget between 1k to 2k ? Don't want the headaches
of worrying if my chinese scope is good/bad/unknown etc. So kindly advise something which is proven
to be good without selling a kidney to get it :-)

Something like 100mhz - 150mhz, 4 channel, not second hand.

Thank you !

[c4757p]

Well, since you said "1k", not "US $1k" or something, I'm going to assume you're in the US, because I am American, and that's what we do.

Your price range is a bit low for a four-channel. I'd recommend the DSOX2014A ($2264), myself, and most other recommendations are going to be around this price point as well, $2k to $3k.

[othello]

Thank you, i'm going to check it out ! Btw, i meant actually 1k euro to 2k euro, so it's probably in USD something like 1.3k to 2.6k.

Appreciate any further advise on good scopes to consider !

[microwave68]

My first question is why you don't want a second hand scope ?
there are some good scopes out there on the market that were made in the US and were build at much higher quality than most of the new stuff !
The best company for scopes is - hands down - LECROY , they got a low cost series too !

[c4757p]

The best company for scopes is - hands down - LECROY

Careful with that... I sense vehement disagreement coming your way....

[dr.diesel]

The best company for scopes is - hands down - LECROY , they got a low cost series too !

Dude, seriously, what are you smoking?  I want some...

[senso]

My first question is why you don't want a second hand scope ?
there are some good scopes out there on the market that were made in the US and were build at much higher quality than most of the new stuff !
The best company for scopes is - hands down - LECROY , they got a low cost series too !

The low cost ones are rigols painted in black with a hefty price mark...
Some people refer to LeCroy as LeCrap 

[alm]

Stop repeating other people's opinions as gospel. Vincent is experienced, which makes his opinion carry more weight than the opinion of someone who's never seen a Lecroy scope up close, but it's still just an opinion partly based on personal preferences and experiences.

The low cost ones are rigols painted in black with a hefty price mark...

Really? I think you're confusing Lecroy with Agilent (although those are not painted black). Can you give an example of a Lecroy scope and the matching Rigol model?

[senso]

I think they are Rigols, or something near that, the software is just about the same as the DS1052E, there is also some older ones with 2 channels that are rigols look a like, I can be wrong(which is very probable)
But just take a look:
http://cdn.teledynelecroy.com/files/pdf/lecroy_waveace_datasheet.pdf

See this WaveAce 102:

[alm]

Rigol didn't make an affordable widescreen scope before the DS2000 series. You may be confused with Siglent/Atten. And yes, all the Chinese manufacturers pretty much copy the UI from each other and the old Tek DSOs.

[rf-loop]

I think they are Rigols, or something near that, the software is just about the same as the DS1052E, there is also some older ones with 2 channels that are rigols look a like, I can be wrong(which is very probable)
But just take a look:
http://cdn.teledynelecroy.com/files/pdf/lecroy_waveace_datasheet.pdf

See this WaveAce 102:

My opinion is that it is old obsolete Siglent manufactured SDS1062C rebranded - in this picture for LeCroy. (also this tell it is old, becouse today there is Teledyne (LeCroy))

It is best that peoples just forget this kind of history becouse all companies developing. Some go better and better - some go opposite way. After this time, Siglent have developed lot of.
(Siglent have time ago stopped, afaik, all 5" TFT old models for sell using Siglent own name)
New Siglent some models can find from Teledyne  and example BK Precision and some other brands. (but perhaps they do not any OEM/ODM for Rigol)

[EEVblog]

You only have several brand choices here if you want a "quality" brand.
If you want a top brand with almost guaranteed no headaches Agilent, Tek and Hameg are probably it.
Agilent has to be best "go to" brand here by far.
Hardly anyone buys Tek anymore because all their stuff is ancient, but still reliable and well supported.
Hameg are big in Europe, so you should consider them.

Top of the next rung down are Rigol and GW/Instek.
Rigol make great stuff these days, but their firmware can still be lacking.

The rest inhabit the lower rung. Opinions are like arseholes here, everyones got one.

[othello]

Thank you all for your info / input on this matter !

After some more digging and reading i'm considering now also a Rigol DS2202 which seems to be also quite capable, 2 channel instead of 4 but bandwidth is 200mhz. Also since people consider Rigol getting their act together.

[ivan747]

Well apparently, there is this coming soon:



https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/new-rigol-ds1000z-and-mso4000/

100M analog bandwidth; 4 channel, max 1G sample / sec    and    build in  two channel arbitrary waveform generator  O.o
list price $1000

[Dave]

This DS1000Z series seems rather disappointing compared to the DS2000 series.

• 250MSps @ 4 channels vs 1GSps @ 2 channels
• 6Mpt/ch @ 4 ch vs 28Mpt/ch @ 2 ch
• 1mV/div vs 500uV/div

I know 4 channels can be much more useful than just having 2, but I don't think the trade-off is worth it.
The DS4000 series sure looks lovely now...

[othello]

Thanks again for the great input !

I decided to go with the Rigol DS2202 :-)