I do love the DS2072 especially when "optimized" to its full capability. I have to wonder if Rigol will be pressured to offer a DS2074 someday with some of these other 4 channel offerings with a higher sample rate. I'd like to see that.
I've discussed that possibility with them, but they've said no.
It would require a completely new board layout, for one thing. That doesn't mean though that it would never happen (e.g., a new DS3000-series). For now, they're focusing on adding 16-channel digital LA capabilities to their DS1000Z (soon), and DS2000 (a bit later).
I did think hard about the DS4014, but its price, size, noise, and what I read about it running warm just didn't push me to buy although I'm sure it is quite nice.
There's a lot to like about the DS4014, but I don't feel that the performance increase justifies the price (compared to the DS2000-series). When you throw in all the owner comments here about stuff that flat-out
doesn't work properly on the DS4000 (still!), that kills it for me.
Re: adding a second DS2072A:
Yes, I actually did this, but I think when it comes down to it, it just isn't the same not having everything next to each other on one screen with one time reference. I was going to build a little shelf to put one ds2072 above the other. The more I think about it, perhaps I should just give up on having a 4 channel one and just use a logic analyzer instead. Much less bulky probes for many channels anyway.
First off, if what you really need those extra channels for is mostly logic, then the MSO2072 would make a lot more sense (than two DS2000's). That gives you time-correlated signals, in two domains. (And of course, the 4-channel Siglent + MSO will [some day] give you both!) If you need them
only for logic though, then a separate logic analyzer will be vastly more powerful and capable than what
any MSO can offer. I'd recommend you look at something like the USBee SX for that (with it's extensive and powerful protocol analysis capabilities, up to a 25 MSa/sec rate). Or, wait a bit and see what Saleae has up their sleeve in their new/pending offering. They're hinting it will be pretty slick.
In the case of the USBeeSX, not only does it support vastly more protocols, but you can add new ones as needed. (Try
that on a Rigol. Or Tek. Or Agilent!) Plus, it can decode more streams (not limited to 2 decoders, as all these scopes are). For example, I can watch a 500k CAN bus signal (1) flow from a vehicle through a bus transceiver and be forwarded via SPI (2) at 8MHz to an embedded micro, then after filtering and conversion, sent on via RS232 (3) at 115.2k to a PC. Along with an I2C control signal (4) that's time-related. NONE of these MSO's is going to give you that (4 simultaneous decoders). And it has extremely powerful Search and Mark capabilities (basically post-acquisition 'triggering' on any
combination of any conditions) for easy navigation and fault isolation. That goes
way beyond what even a $20k instrument will give you (because it's not real-time). Combined with almost unlimited sample depth (hundreds of megs is no problem), to capture really long "conversations".
The limitations there are in sample rate (e.g., no good at all for newer 25MHz SPI on my current board!), and no time-correlated analog checks on signal integrity. (Which I definitely like to see and confirm!) And it's not set up to handle varying signal levels all by itself (you may need to front-end it, for some applications. But I see there are nifty $18 boards for that
on eBay now that I didn't have available back then.) But you can't have everything, for less than 200 bucks for the module with core software (just looked... $169 now), and another $200? for the elaborate Search & Mark capable software. (looked... $299 now for the Pro Suite, on sale occasionally.) There are going to be
some compromises that are inevitable.
You really have to evaluate what you're going to do with your tools, to be able to select the most appropriate ones for the job.