Products > Test Equipment
Scope recomendations in $15-20K range?
jayk:
I'm looking for a scope in the $15-20K price range. I'd like at least 1GHz BW, 4+ channels, 12 bits. Tek has a promotion right now with the MSO44-1.5GHz coming in at $14K and the MSO46-1.5GHz at $16.5K, with options at half of list price. I see the R&S MXO4-BNDL (1.5GHz) @ $20.5K. The LeCroy Wavesurfer 4104HD is $13K with a bunch of options. Keysight has some 10-bit models on their used site in this price range (even up to 2.5GHz or higher), although these don't include probes and I'm not sure about the option pricing. I do a lot of embedded and RF work along with some power supplies and precision analog. I played around with the MXO4 a bit at a trade show and the UI seemed a bit laggy though there wasn't an opportunity to make any real measurements - it does seem to have a ton of features, and there are some in-depth reviews on youtube. I haven't used the Tek or Lecroy yet, but I'm seeing if there's a way to get one as a demo. My trusty MSO6034A has been great going on 15 years, but these days the screen is seeming a little small for some reason.
Anything else to consider in this range?
tautech:
SDS6204A @~$10k might be right up your alley, albeit officially 8bit it offers an additional 8bits or ERES/Hires when/if needed. Nice 12" touch display too and fond of mine.
There's also a option bundle promo active for these.
https://siglentna.com/news-article/permanent-analysis-bundle-on-your-new-oscilloscope/
2N3055:
PSU, analog work and embedded is done well with scope with less BW. It will be less noisy.
RF is done best with RF tools like SA.
Maybe you would be better served with that combination?
More detail would be needed.
Siglent has new SDS3000xHD that was just released for fraction of that budget and it leaves enough money to buy good SA...
That is 1GHz scope and a SA in your budget...
Or 200-500MHz scope and even better SA...
Also include probes (active) in the equation if you need them..
Berni:
Something to consider is if you want to be using the scope as a daily driver or as a high performance beast that can do any task thrown at it.
A lot of the high end feature packed scopes come at a price of speed. I also have a MSO6034A and it is still my daily driver scope. The Agilent MSO9204H is rarely used because it is not as quick and intuitive to use and most of the time i don't need the extra performance. It is big, it is loud, it eats lots of power, it takes longer to boot, lots of menus are on touchscreen only...etc. So i tend to power it on only when i have a job that needs the GHz bandwidth or high resolution, or decoding some weird high speed bus that nothing else will decode.
So i found out it is sensible to have a simple, fast and reliable daily driver scope for all the simple tasks of "is this clock 25MHz?" or "is my LDO oscillating" then keep a separate big boy scope for when you need to dig deep down into some serious high speed timing issues.
Also keep in mind that in order to make use of the GHz levels of bandwidth you also need active probes. Yes you can buy 500MHz passive probes or even 1GHz probes. However all of these passive probes have too much capacitive loading to be useful in real life circuits above about 200MHz. Active probes solve this problem, however they can be very expensive and tend to be specific to a scope manufacturer, or even only usable only on a subset of scopes from a given manufacturer. So it is a good idea to look into what probing solutions are available for your next scope.
Psi:
Yeah, once you hit like a $5-8k scope price it's more about what scope features do you actually require to do your job.
Spending more just to get a quality/high-performance instrument is usually not the best use of the money. (not saying you are doing this, just in general)
As stated above, really expensive scopes can be harder to use or slower. And quality doesn't change that much.
Sometimes a cleaner/simpler UI is nicer to use.
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