Help choosing the right Arbitrary Waveform Generator : old or new instrument ?

[psykok]

Hi,

Currently I have a WAVETEK FG3B function generator which is not bad but it's a little bit too noisy for my Audio usage (specially for the square wave)

I need at least:
- frequency range until 20 MHz
- good Frequence Accuracy (<0.5% )
- output range until 5vpp
- low distortion sin wave
- small overshot for square wave

My budget is arround 250€  (very max 300)



As new instrument I found two nice generators by Rogol and Siglen
- Siglent SDG1000
- Rigol DG1022

For Old instrument :
- HP 3325B
- HP 8165A

I know that all instrument I have listed above are more or less fitting my needs but what will be your advice ? better a new or an old instrument? do you have maybe other good suggestions?

Thanks for your help.


Regards,

Alex

[jpb]

Your requirements are a little vague.

For example, you say you want low distortion sine waves but don't say how low. If you're doing audio work you may find the distortion levels of general function generators a bit high and it might be worth considering a separate source for the audio side. For example I nearly bought an Krohn Hite ultra low distortion oscillator off e-bay that the seller was having trouble shifting at £60 but didn't in the end because of the bulk (I don't have much space).

[psykok]

Hi,

I said low distortion because my current Generator has a noisy output.
I don't think a need an ULTRA low noise sine generator, I have one in my Audio Analyzer (hp 8903).

Alex

[Bored@Work]

The combination of low distortion sine wave and cheap) ARB might not be what you want. ARBs typically work with DDS or other techniques where a waveform is assembled piecewise from digital data. These techniques create all sorts of imperfections.

Hint: Quantify (with numbers) what you want, not qualify with words (like "low" or "ultra low").