Ask HN: What are the state-of-the-art oscilloscopes today?

[ollran]

What are the state-of-the-art oscilloscopes today and what technical features are required of them? If you work with an oscilloscope on a daily basis, then what kind of oscilloscope do you prefer to work with?

I am looking for recommendations on features and specifications to support decision making, not necessarily a specific brand or model.

[bradtron]

I'd like to add two points, if I may: (1) After selecting and then buying a digital scope you might also consider finding a used analog scope to have as well. The analog scopes allow you to view signal features not so readily viewable with the lower end digital offerings. (2) I've not used them myself but you might also look into the Digilent; i.e., Analog Discovery 2, modules which can offer a rich feature set including a built in function generator, logic analyzer, metering etc.

[ollran]

Thanks for the tip. All my experience is based on the use of an analog oscilloscope. Analog Discovery 2 looks interesting though. I will definitely take a look on it.

[rzzzwilson]

You really should give some indication of price range you are interested in and what you want to use it for. Scopes go from less than $300 for a minimal usable desktop to over $335,000 for the Tektronix DPO73304SX. And I'm sure you can spend more than that if you want to.

[ollran]

Oh sure. It's for hobby projects: reverse engineering and building electronic devices. Price range is somewhere between $300 and $1000.