Emergency help. Scope purchase.

[nctnico]

I guess it comes down to price then. For a similar configuration (with digital channels and decoding options) the Wavesurfer 3000 is around $2200 cheaper than the MDO3000. The big difference in price is mainly due to the options of Tektronix being insanely expensive.

[Wuerstchenhund]

This is becoming now quite repetitive and I think we just have to agree to disagree in some points. I'm absolutely with you on Siglent and the SDS2000, which has been released prematurely while Siglent still hasn't gained control over their software issues. On others I'm not (i.e. re touch screen, I want to use my bench for my projects and certainly don't want to waste valuable bench space with keyboard and mouse just for a scope; touch avoids all that). I guess that's life.

As to the demo of the MDO3k I saw, this should realistically have been a piece of cake for Tek. But there's only one chance for your product to shine before orders are signed, and this is during such demos. Of course it may well be that major flaws are fixed in later updates, but I would never ever buy a product based on the hope that major issues will be fixed eventually. You rightfully say that you've been disappointed with the SDS2000, and I wouldn't buy one on the premise that eventually the major issues will be fixed. But the same is true for any other manufacturer, and that includes Tek.

As to the link, yes, it's from 2012, but I choose it because it explains the issues Tek is facing. Here's something from June 2014 and it doesn't look like the situation has improved much:
http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/index.ssf/2014/06/danaher_tektronixs_acquisition.html
"...Danaher paid $2.85 billion for Tektronix in 2007. The deal has been a big disappointment, with Tek steadily shedding jobs while struggling to grow sales and maintain market share."
The sad fact is that Tek's business is performing poorly due to a lack of innovation and a not very attractive product portfolio. There's no way around that.

However, based on this discussion I will try to get hold of an MDO3k scope and see if I can spend more time with it. It does seem to have some nice features, but as I said at the end of the day these are useless if the scope bogs down or becomes unresponsive, and some other things (i.e. the UI, the small screen) are just things that can't be ignored. But I'll give it a try with the latest firmware when I get the chance to, which should show if things got better.

I'm not saying the WS3k is perfect. Personally I disliked some of the hardware controls (the scope shows the typical Siglent layout, not the typical LeCroy layout), and I think LeCroy could have offered some more options by now (i.e. the SPECTRUM option available with other LeCroy scopes which turns it into a vector SA like the MDO3k), but in my opinion as an every-day scope it has some features that make it a great debugging scope, and as pointed out by ntnico it's a lot cheaper than the MDO3k.

It's true that there are very few video reviews of LeCroy scopes out there. For some reason LeCroy is very cautious when giving out kit to reviewers, I guess they still haven't wrapped their head around this type of marketing. On the other side, they are one of the few companies that doesn't resort to dissing their competitors, which is why you won't see any 'ours-vs-theirs' videos or brochures from LeCroy, something Tek and AGilent/Keysight are pretty engaged in (often with lots of half-truths and borderline lying in it). However, I do know that LeCroy is currently considering giving equipment to more reviewers, so I guess we should see more of their kit in videos in the future.

But at the end of the day, the best way to choose a scope is to get loaners of all scopes that are worth considering and testing them out in a real scenario. Videos and reading specs can't replace that.

[don]

As to the link, yes, it's from 2012, but I choose it because it explains the issues Tek is facing. Here's something from June 2014 and it doesn't look like the situation has improved much:
http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/index.ssf/2014/06/danaher_tektronixs_acquisition.html
"...Danaher paid $2.85 billion for Tektronix in 2007. The deal has been a big disappointment, with Tek steadily shedding jobs while struggling to grow sales and maintain market share."
The sad fact is that Tek's business is performing poorly due to a lack of innovation and a not very attractive product portfolio. There's no way around that.

That's really the same article - speaking of being repetitive . Click on the link embedded in text that says "the deal has been a big disappointment"  and you'll be redirected to the original 2012 link from oregonlive.com. I'm sure oregon is quite unhappy with job shedding.  That's tough for locals to deal with and sad.  But it does not speak to the product quality, market share or innovation.   Anyway, I understand how businesses grow and shrink under changing market conditions but thanks for trying to shed some light there.  Danaher is apparently pretty good at eliminating inefficiencies for better or worse.

I'm not saying the WS3k is perfect. Personally I disliked some of the hardware controls (the scope shows the typical Siglent layout, not the typical LeCroy layout), and I think LeCroy could have offered some more options by now (i.e. the SPECTRUM option available with other LeCroy scopes which turns it into a vector SA like the MDO3k), but in my opinion as an every-day scope it has some features that make it a great debugging scope, and as pointed out by ntnico it's a lot cheaper than the MDO3k.

I didn't realize LeCroy scopes now offered SPECTRUM options with BW that can be 30x that of standard scope channels.  Is that on standard channels or requires a dedicated RF input like MDO?   In the MDO3000 case one could get 3GHz BW on a $4k scope.  Which scopes are you referring to?