Why is a decent benchtop DMM more expensive than a scope?

[kcbrown]

Anecdote is not evidence.

A large enough collection of anecdotes is evidence for the purposes here.  It's what builds reputation.  Reputation isn't something that's measured in a lab, it's the result of customer experience built over long periods of time.

Now, whether that means that meters from their competitors are worse is a very different question, and I expect that the answer is "it depends".

On what would it depend?

Mainly on the difference between tests and the real world.  Surely you know there's a difference, no?

Fact 2: Joe killed an 87V with 12000V and a tiny amount of energy, nowhere near the energy of a full CAT rating test. That was after another 87V died in his hands at a much lower voltage.

Yes, the meter died under those conditions.  But that's not what safety means.  In the real world, safety means that the meter doesn't harm you or anyone else.

Edit: I'm told that Fluke and Amprobe are the really same company and make their meters in the same building. High voltage meter testing facilities are expensive so you'd imagine they'll be sharing a single testing facility across all the product lines, ie. the exact same people are doing the CAT testing for both brands.

Amprobe existed as a separate company prior to its acquisition.  Maybe they make some of their meters in the same building as Fluke and maybe they don't.  No idea.  Either way, Amprobe would likely have had its own testing facilities prior to acquisition.  It's entirely possible that those facilities were retained.  So are they being tested in the same facility?  No idea on that either.