Holiday Oscilloscope Shopping

[gamozo]

It's Holiday time! (Happy Holidays everyone!) And I'm extremely tempted to get a new, fancy oscilloscope. I've currently got a DS1052E, which I love, but the resolution makes me want to shoot myself in the foot. I'm looking for anything in the 100MHzish range but I want massive sample rates and massive screen resolutions. 200MHz would probably be optimal, as well as good quality hardware. I'm currently budgeting up to $5k USD but when I start to become more sane, this number will probably drop a bit.

http://www.home.agilent.com/agilent/product.jspx?nid=-33573.970756.00&lc=eng&cc=US

This is currently on the top of my mind. Great sample rate, massive resolution, and 200MHz. The digital channels are a plus, but it's hard for me to decide if it's really worth the extra 1k.

Any suggestions? I'm very strongly emphasizing on quality, and I love Agilent's stuff... I'm open to ideas, but I'd prefer something that can 1up the Rigol (typos in the firmware everywhere). Once again, it's not necessarily about freq, it's more about sample rate, resolution, and readability/usability. The more control/finer control the better.

Regards,
Brandon Falk

[saturation]

Agilent's new series DSO have a trade in offer that could still be in effect, IIRC you can get a ~ 15% discount for sending them a working or non-working >= 50 MHz scope.

[gamozo]

http://www.testequity.com/static/265/

I found that link... not sure if it's just a testequity thing, as I buy from Newark (but obviously I could make exceptions).

Oooh!

http://www.newark.com/pdfs/techarticles/agilent/TradeIn_Flyer.pdf

There we go! Ohhhhhh yeah!

[saturation]

There was a link on your original URL I found:

http://www.home.agilent.com/agilent/editorial.jspx?cc=US&lc=eng&ckey=2081275&nid=-33573.970736.02&id=2081275

So, for example, buy this now:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tektronix-455-50MHz-Oscilloscope-/190584597229?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c5fba2aed

$93 spent, plus another $20 to ship to Agilent.

Your $5200 scope saves you $780, so you net save $670, now that's all before taxes.  Just ideas.

[ToBeFrank]

If you shop around and call/email companies for quotes, you can get the 15% off and keep your rigol.

[EEVblog]

Yes, do try and get the 15% trade-in, just buy a non-working >50MHz scope on Ebay. I think most official dealers should have the offer.
As with most MSO scopes, the logic analyser part is fairly poor value compared to a good USB logic analyser. You are paying a big price premium for it. You can always buy without the LA and then decide to buy it later on if needed?
The software options are fairly pricey on the Agilent, but it's no different with Tek and others really.

In any case, you won't regret the 3000X scope. But always worth shopping around of course for what best suits your needs and budget.

Dave.

[gamozo]

As with most MSO scopes, the logic analyser part is fairly poor value compared to a good USB logic analyser. You are paying a big price premium for it. You can always buy without the LA and then decide to buy it later on if needed?

Wooo! I save $1000 . Thanks. I can always upgrade, like you said. I've been doing logic analysis on my own using my 2 channel Rigol, so I think for now 4 channels will be enough for manual analysis (2 channels on the Rigol is starting to become an issue).

In any case, you won't regret the 3000X scope. But always worth shopping around of course for what best suits your needs and budget.

Thanks, I'll still look around a bit, but I'm in love with Agilent (for no apparent reason... perhaps it was the first big name I came across? I don't remember)

saturation:

Brilliant idea! Keep my Rigol, and still save a boatload!

ToBeFrank:

I'll have to give that a shot too.

-Brandon

[ToBeFrank]

Oh, also, order it from a company that is out of state. You won't pay sales tax that way. That saved me an additional 9.1%.

[EEVblog]

Ask what price Tequipment.net can do you if you mention the blog:
http://www.tequipment.net/AgilentDSOX3024A.asp

Dave.