Oscilloscope help!

[Travis8]

Hi everyone!

I´m looking for a oscilloscope to work with guitar amps, pedals and some hifi amps.

I want it under 400$ but with enough quality to work with those things... Also I wanna know If I cant measure high voltages of guitar amps with it.

I see this options, but I dont know wich is the better choice:


Hantek DSO2C10
Hantek DSO2D10
Hantek DSO5072P
Hantek DSO4072P

Siglent SDS1104X-E
Siglent SDS1202X-E

RIGOL DS1054Z
RIGOL DS1202Z-E

Thanks!!!!!

[sluckey]

The Siglent and Rigol are better quality than the Hantek. I have the Siglent SDS1202X-E. It has a max input of 400V_pk. Rigol DS1202Z-E has a max input of 300V_rms. You must observe the input voltage limit of any scope. I think the Siglent control layout is more intuitive, especially if you grew up with analog scopes.

I also have a Tektronix 465B, considered the workhorse of the industry for a long time. There are lots of good Tek scopes available for $200 or less.

All mentioned scopes are way more than capable of servicing audio.

[HotBluePlates]

I have one of the Hantek scopes.  I think it's plenty good enough as long as you don't probe tube plates, and instead go probe at "the other side" of a coupling cap or transformer.

The only drawback of digital scopes is the slight delay between an event occurring & being displayed on the screen.  However, they enable easy measurement of what would be complex setups with an analog scope (like doing FFT to identify distortion components), and often have a signal generator integral to the scope.

[acheld]

I also have a Hantek DSOD10, and it is adequate for amp and audio work.   I will say that it took me some time to get used to the menu structure, which is not intuitive (at least for me).  No experience with Siglent or Rigol.  But if Sluckey says the menus are better, I'd go with Siglent other things being equal.   

One more option -- and there are many others -- is the low cost PicoTech USB powered unit, which interfaces with PicoTech o'scope software on your Mac or PC.   When I got this thing some years ago, I did not enjoy using the oscilloscope software at all.  But, it is in version 7 now, and is actually quite easy to use with a lot of features.  Sometimes it is easier to use the Picotech than the Hantek -- horses for courses.    That said, the max voltage on the Picotech input is pretty low, which has not stopped me yet . . .

[Soulfetish]

The Siglent and Rigol are better quality than the Hantek. I have the Siglent SDS1202X-E. It has a max input of 400V_pk. Rigol DS1202Z-E has a max input of 300V_rms. You must observe the input voltage limit of any scope. I think the Siglent control layout is more intuitive, especially if you grew up with analog scopes.

I also have a Tektronix 465B, considered the workhorse of the industry for a long time. There are lots of good Tek scopes available for $200 or less.

All mentioned scopes are way more than capable of servicing audio.

I loved my 465B. Once upon a time, my father let me carve out a little space in his home shop to set up a bench. One of the things he kept in there was a large mast and boom from a wooden sailboat which hadn't seen the ocean in 20 years. When someone came to take the boat, they dropped the mast
on my 465 trying to take it out completely destroying the cam switches which control the horizontal and vertical settings.
I tried buying a couple of replacements locally, but they all ended up needing quite a bit of maintenance. Tek has some dynamite service literature for this scope, but I realized that I really need a scope to do the service I want to do and I don't want to be spending time repairing a scope.
So, during the pandemic I bought a Siglent SDS2202X-e. I really like this scope a lot. One of the reasons I chose it was that it was under $500, and I had a coupon code which basically covered the sales tax, and the size and resolution of the display looked great.
I agree with sluckey about the easy interface. Quick learning curve. Plus, I use it at the shop I work at, and my boss (who's kind of a staunch analog scope user) bought a 1202X-E for the other techs bench when they were looking at replacements.
I mention this because that one actually had to go back for a warranty repair. Siglant USA made the process easy and painless, and took very good care of us. Correspondence with the service manager was a pleasure. He was easy to reach, quick to respond if we needed anything, and very personable.

[Lectroid]

I've had the Rigol DS1052 for a couple of years and, for my simple needs, I think it's a great deal for the money.  It does a lot more than the simple troubleshooting I do and the controls interface is simple and clear.

[AlNewman]

I ordered a fnirsi 1014d...
We'll see how it works.  For audio, and radio aligning, I think it should work well with the built in signal generator.  Plus, it's isolated from mains power, which will likely be beneficial, especially when I'm learning.

In metric money, including tax, it will come delivered at under $300, a low end Rigol would be in the $6-700 range delivered.  I'm hoping it will work well for my limited purpose and understanding.