Lets talk oscilloscopes (again)

[GeneParmesan]

I'm at the point where I'm looking to buy an oscilloscope, and i'm looking for some suggestions and opinions. I know this question has been asked to death, and I did do a search of older posts for recommendations, but most of them are older and no longer relevant.

I think I want something new, not used for a couple of reasons.
1. I would like some sort of man. warranty.
2. I would rather not have to deal with ebay seller shipping
3. I don't want to deal with being scammed, so Craigslist and FB are out.

My needs are for basic audio repair, receivers and amplifiers mostly.

I have managed to get a decent amount of equipment at estate sales and estate sale auction sites, but I don't think I have ever seen an oscilloscope for sale.

So, do you have any models you would recommend, or in the same vein, manufacturers to avoid?

What about shopping sites? Should I stick with Amazon, or are there any other sites to consider?

My budget high end is about $300-350.00

There is a Rigol DS-1202Z available on Amazon right now for about 350 (lowest price in the last 30 days), but it has gone as low as 277 in the last year. Im hoping to see that again, but I doubt it.

Thanks in advance for all your suggestions!

 

[cq.ab0nf]

That Rigol would work. Use it, then you may find features you wish it had, but does not, so you'll buy another one.

Personally I'd get one with FFT for a few dollars more.

 

[mrehorst]

A couple things... 1 Gsps means BW is actually 100MHz BW, not 200 MHz. That scope has a fair memory depth of 24 Mbits, but appears to be an 8-bit unit- you can do a lot better for a little more money...

You can get a Siglent SDS804X directly from Siglent for $461. That's a 70 MHz BW, 12 bit, 4 channel scope with 2 Gsps maximum sample rate and 50 Mbit memory. It does all sorts of waveform math including FFT. Here's the thing... Siglent makes a 100 MHz and a 200 MHz BW versions of this scope, too. They are all exactly the same hardware- and there is a readily available and easily applied keygen that will convert that 70 MHz scope to the 200 MHz scope with 100 Mbits of memory.

Digital scope BW varies with the sweep setting you use and the number of channels in use. The scope will use all available memory for each measurement. So if you set the sweep to 100ms per division (1 sec across the full display) and there is 24 Mbits of waveform memory, the sample rate will adjust so that the memory is filled in 1 sec. BW is 1/10 of the sample rate. In this extreme example the sample rate will be 24e6 samples/1 sec = 24 Msps so BW of the measurement will be 2.4 MHz. The BW numbers quoted in the advertisements are always the maximum possible, not the BW you will get for every measurement. If you use a second channel, the memory will be divided by 2, so will the BW.

Take a look at EEVblog- they do a lot of comparisons of digital scopes and there are a lot of user reviews.

 

[ConradH]

+1 on the Siglent. Also, go to the EEVblog site, test equipment forum, and you can find a post that will give you a discount code if you buy from Saelig.