Help looking for a decent $100-$150 multimeter

[bitseeker]

One can never have enough DMMs. Bench ones are nice too. No batteries, no auto-off, fast, easy to read, etc.

Regarding the freebie ones from Harbor Freight, they are also useful for testing batteries (9V, AA, AAA) as the meter puts a load on them and displays the current that the battery is able to deliver. This is much better than the typical unloaded voltage method.

[rsjsouza]

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions everyone!

So far I am leaning towards the Brymen BM257S, but I am having a bit of trouble finding it - I can't find it on Amazon at all and there are only two people on eBay with it, one for $145 and the other for $162.  The $145 isn't out of my budget, but I noticed some of you marked it as around $110.  Anyone know of somewhere I can get it for cheaper (In the USA)?

You can check the prices at http://www.tme.eu - I purchased twice from them and the delivery and service were really good. No complaints there. 

As for recommendations, Lightages' recommendation of the BM857S is good - I have a previous version of it ("not S") and it works really well for the price. The BM867S is also an excellent option but a bit above your price range when you consider shipping.

If you want to save some green (1/2 the price of the BM257) from the get go and still get a good featured meter (6k counts, temp, capacitance, fast continuity, reasonably well built, etc), you can also check Radioshack's 2200087 (yeah, they are still around). You can find more reasonable eBay prices with free shipping (here). I did a review of mine and I am very pleased with its performance.

As far as a second meter goes I think I'll start with one.  I will check out the Harbor Freight freebie too, or a cheap pocket multimeter- I remember Dave mentioning that it's nice to have one of those as well.  (Any suggestions for a not completely garbage pocket multimeter?)  I also have a friend I work on a lot of my electronics projects with and he has a (cheapish) multimeter too.

The Harbor freight ones are ok as second meters, but seeing the quality degrade so much across the years (I've had several of them) has put me off a bit. Also, I use meters primarily at the bench, therefore some usability details detract from it: the non-standard banana jacks prevent me from easily switching things between different meters when connected on a circuit; the lack of a support stand forces me to look for a suitable place to place the meter; it is so lightweight that moving around the probes makes it fall from the carefully chosen "suitable place", only forcing me to find another one... Nothing really serious, but inconveniences that made me relegate them to become my kid's toys.