Hi, I’m looking to purchase my first oscilloscope but overwhelmed by the amount features they have. I don’t want to waste money on features that I would not need or use, so need advice for a good unit that will fit my requirements. I will also want a signal generator.
It will only be used for audio stereo amplifier fault finding, able to display both channel sine waves simultaneously.
I’ve been looking at 2 channel 70mhz scopes but this is only based on my own limited knowledge on the subject. So would really appreciate your advice.
Budget is a bit limited at between £300 to £400 max.
Thanks
It will partly depend on what interpretation you will need to place on the displayed traces.
If you are intending to look at harmonic distortion, then you would need a digitising scope with a 12 bit (or higher) digitiser. A spectrum analyser might be a better choice.
If you are looking at PSU noise and ripple, anything will be sufficient.
If you are looking at the shape of an analogue waveform, e.g. to spot faulty components, tweak biassing or to spot when slew rate limitation causes TID, then anything will be sufficient.
If you are looking at the noise levels, then you need a scope with particularly low noise. That requires
low bandwidth, as low as possible.
As others have said, a
working analogue scope sounds like an ideal starting point. The rule of thumb is £1/MHz for something dubious (a little more for something you can see workin), and you don't need many MHz!
For any scope, if you are particularly interested in valve equipment, then you will need to ensure the high voltages don't damage the scope or you, and to be sure whether or not the the chassis is connected to mains earth (the probe shield must be connected to mains earth, for your safety).