(Long time lurker, first time poster.)
I'm in the market for a new scope. I've looked at everything - Keysight, Tek, LeCroy, Yokogawa, Rigol, Owon, etc. There are so many dimensions to the decision that it's hard to sort it all out. I realize this a deep, sometimes emotional, and oft-discussed topic so let me keep the fundamental question as simple as possible. I'll provide some background and then pose the question at the end.
Background:
My requirements are 100MHz (but 200MHz would be much better), either 4A or 2A+digital channels, relatively deep memory, and - here's the kicker - CAN decoding. If it weren't for CAN, I'd grab an MSO1104Z for a kilobuck and live with the narrower bandwidth. But the 1000 series doesn't offer CAN decoding so I have to move to more expensive options.
I'm partial to HP/Agilent/KeySight because I have friends who have worked there for decades, am familiar with their gear, and already have some specialized HP stuff around. I also have lots of experience with Tek, and even Philips (back in the day - I really loved the Philips analog scopes and still have a PM3214 sitting within arm's reach!). But after doing straight comparisons between the Big Brands and Rigol, the former simply want too much money while cheating you on bandwidth or memory or digital channels or whatever. There's just too much of a price premium, even with KeySight's current "all options free" deal. (They had a similar deal going last summer too, and I almost pulled the trigger then.)
Yes, I understand the concept of using multiple scopes and chaining them together via trigger out/in. But that doesn't give me all of my recorded data on one screen. If I need more than two analog channels, I'm usually correlating data so the multiple scope approach just doesn't work well for me. I need a single device so everything correlates easily.
Sticking with Rigol for the moment, since I need CAN I'm forced to go to at least the 2000 series. But it only has two analog channels. To get four, I'm forced to the 4000 series and a big step up in cost. Other than the two extra analog channels, I don't really need the additional features of the 4000 series, so the entire decision is ultimately coming down to a question of analog vs. digital channels.
Thankfully, the Rigol digital channels are reasonably configurable. Trigger voltage thresholds, etc. can be dialed in such that I presume they *can* be used on an analog signal in a pinch for triggering purposes. Or, I can rube up a circuit to give the scope an psuedo-digital representation of the analog signal.
So... which does the hive mind think is the better choice: Two 200MHz analog + 16 digital channels (MSO2022A), or four 100MHz analog and zero digital channels (DS4014)? They are roughly 10% apart in price. Both come with the "free software bundle" that gives me CAN and a bunch of other stuff for no extra charge. It's not often that I need more than 100MHz but if you do there's no substitute, you can't fake your way there like substituting digital for analog, you either have the bandwidth or you don't. There are other considerations: 2000 series is the newer design (I think), 4000 series has a larger screen and lots more memory and faster waveform capture, etc. But let's keep it simple.
I can have 2A@200MHz + 16D, or I can have 4A@100MHz, for about the same price. Which is more valuable? Which would you buy, and why?
Thanks!