I am considering purchasing the 500 MHz version of one of the above scopes.
While I am a practicing EE, well versed in the use of scopes made prior to 1998, I have not used the newer generation of scopes, other than a brief 1.5 hr 'demo' of each unit, so in some respects, I consider myself a 'newbe'.
I'd like some input from ppl that have used one or the other (preferably both) scope to provide some comments about pros and cons, especially the negatives. I have read through the numbers in comparisons, and the Agilent seems to have a noticeable edge in basic capability (I don't consider the integral FG any sort of an advantage, so I do my evaluation not considering that functionality).
I addition to pros/cons, I am also seeking input on 'useability'...e.g. how easy or hard is it to do signal capture and analysis. I know this is subjective, but if you ran into road blocks, had to adjust 20 settings just to analyze a trace, etc. that frustrated you, I'd like to hear about it.
I kindly thank you for you time in responding.
BTW, I saw the 32 page thread on the 'review' of the new Agilent 2000x and 3000x, but the thread had two or three themes: numbers comparison, advertising games wrt cost, and how can this scope be hacked... All of which are interesting but very few posts addressed my questions.
Also, this scope is intended for a design engineering workbench addressing both analog (not rf) and digital (logic, MCUs, and FPGA based designs).
best regards,
-John