How much does brand matter with regards to oscilloscopes?

The older ones were. The low end models from them all now come from China it seems.

Yeah, I've wondered about those scopes. I'm anxious to hear some reports. I've heard one so far and it was positive, they bought the $329 special. They did say the dual-scan screen kinda sucked when viewed off-angle. I'd go with a higher end model if you can afford it and get a TFT screen, much prettier.

I bought a Rigol DS1102C (100MHz, color TFT, USB etc). I'm really happy with the performance, the fan is kinda loud though. From reading manuals, reviews and looking at screen shots of Tek, Goodwill, etc. I think I got the best of the bunch for the money. The firmware is stable, does math well, and when using the math functions the way they are displayed on the screen is much more useful and professional-looking IMO. Rigol makes the low end Agilent scope so I figured they'd still be in business in a couple of years. Tech support by e-mail from China is incredible (not that I use them allot, just a couple of questions).

On the low end, I'd say you're still paying something for the name. For example Tek wants over $1000 for a monochrome low end scope. The Rigol I got cost $1000, but was color and much higher bandwidth. It has amazing triggering and DSP filtering capabilities. They both are made in China. Tek does have a nice warranty though.

I'd still recommend having a decent analog scope for a "second opinion" sometimes.

This unit is very good for the money. They have a return policy. Why not try it?

Well for one thing, I realized shortly after posting that it seems not to have a FFT function...

-Michael

Not really, look at the specs.

Yes and no.

A *free* 20 year old scope can easily be better than a $1000 brand new one.

Yes, the good brands are almost always worth the extra $$$$, when it comes to a digital scope, you do get what you pay for.

Even Agilent are now re-badging the cheaper Chinese models like Rigol. You can buy an exact same Agilent 3000 series scope from Rigol for less.

Although I have not seen one, that Owon unit would fall into the "suspect" category, I'd be very surprised if it has the performance (and firmware stability) of other "budget" (but fairly well known) models like say a Rigol or Goodwill. But the Owon is cheap because of the specs, only 25MHz analog bandwidth and an effective single shot bandwidth of around 10MHz (100MS/s / 10). That's pretty awful these days. But if it suits your needs and that's all you can afford then it's "worth the money". The big names don't really offer anything with that low a performance. I'm curious to know how the Owon performs though.

When it comes to digital scopes, bandwidth, sample rate, and big memory do not come for free, the more of each you want the more you will pay.

Old analog scopes on the other hand give unbeatable bandwidth/$$$, but if you need a digital scope then you will have to pay for it.

Dave.

The Rigol does. :-)

I bought my Rigol from Test Equipment Solutions Today. Took about 10 days to get it. Also the Rigol is only about 6" deep (same as the Owon PDS models), and I really like that feature.

I think there's more spread in quality with the lesser known brands - there's potential to get a good deal but also the potential to be very sad.

Goodwill's GDS2000 got a bad review here a couple months back:

I wouldn't want to pay $1k and end up with something like that.

On the other hand Rigol DS1000 has gotten good reviews from Anthony Fremont in various places. I would not buy an "off brand" unless I had an opportunity to handle one myself prior to making the purchase or unless the particular model in question had gotten good reviews.

Or unless they had a very good, clearly stated, no questions asked refund policy (which I've yet to find...)

I think it was 1 month ROR on my scope, it's not going anywhere. :-) I took the chance on the Rigol because they made the low end HP scopes. I figured they were a safe bet.

BTW, I would recommend that the OP download the manuals from the various manufacturers and look at them. Paying careful attention to screen shots.

The Rigol blew away the others with the "cleanliness" and professional look of the display. No unnecessary use of bright background colors with text on them for labels etc.... The fonts look good, the math function displays position themselves on the screen sensibly. The triggering options and filters are absolutely amazing compared to any analog scope I've ever used. Deep 1M sample buffer too, 400MS/sec. Of course a larger full VGA screen would be nice, but hey you have to draw the money line somewhere. ;-)

John E. wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.sf.sbcglobal.net:

IMO,small companies may have an excellent product,but after-sale service and parts support may be lacking compared to a big company.

and you may only have one service point in the entire country,or deal with "authorized service centers". Or you may have to send it out of the country!