New Tektronix 3 Series MDO

[snoopy]

Tek seems to have gone backwards with the Spectrum Analyzer on tyhe MDO3 compared to the MDO3000.

However the MDO4, 5 and 6 have Spectrum View which takes advantage of features built into the new ASIC's. I was told that this feature is available on each channel. Nice 

[EEVblog]

Sorry to hear you’re not getting a response. Please PM me your location and contact info and I’ll make sure you get taken care of.
-Rich

R&S responding on the forum in a Tektronix thread.
Guess who cares more... 

[EEVblog]

I just got a marketing email for the 3 series, up to $7k off + free modules.
Got me thinking, it's been a year now, and given how the release was kinda met with, meh on here, what's the thinking now?
Has anyone bought one or is considering buying one?, or did Tek miss the mark?

[snoopy]

I just got a marketing email for the 3 series, up to $7k off + free modules.
Got me thinking, it's been a year now, and given how the release was kinda met with, meh on here, what's the thinking now?
Has anyone bought one or is considering buying one?, or did Tek miss the mark?

No people are hanging out for a used MDO3000 at a good price and optioning them up with the crack

cheers

[Wuerstchenhund]

I just got a marketing email for the 3 series, up to $7k off + free modules.
Got me thinking, it's been a year now, and given how the release was kinda met with, meh on here, what's the thinking now?
Has anyone bought one or is considering buying one?, or did Tek miss the mark?

We rarely buy any Tek stuff but a couple of months ago I got a MDO34 1GHz unit with 3GHz "SA" as a demo because one of our clients' marketeers insisted we evaluate them as well (he knew the brand name).

It turned out to be only moderately better than the old MDO3000 (which was horrible). The "SA" is still horrible and performs worse than the cheapest Rigol/Siglent standalone box (which costs around the same as what Tek wants just for the upgrade from 1GHz to 3GHz SA), and the other specs (sample rate, memory) are pretty much the same as with the predecessor. The MDO3 UI is an improvement over the horrible MOD3k UI but still not great. And we found quite a few annoying bugs in the device. The client's engineers also didn't like it.

So in my view, yes, it's as "meh" as pretty much any other scope we got from Tek. Which is rather sad, really.

[EEVblog]

It turned out to be only moderately better than the old MDO3000 (which was horrible).

Yikes!

[Sighound36]

I have to agree having had both the 5 & 6 series scopes I can confirm they are under performers, clunky,very average UI way over priced for both software and probes. Ridiculous boot up time of around 6 minutes 12 bit dubious performance unless around 1Ghz on the 6 series probe prices like raw graphene costs!

Also our units crashed quite consistently.

Not having a downer on Tek here, have purchased two pieces of quality Tek test equipment very recently its just the scopes are way off the mark in many areas plus the silly pricing.

Look at LeCroy or Keysight equivalent offers much better all round imho

Some observations below

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/rd-oscilloscope-acquisition-now-settled/msg3000760/#msg3000760

[0culus]

I think the pricing may be the worst part about these 3 and 4 series. The 3 series is attractively priced until you realize that is a base price with no options....and the options add up to 10k+ real fast. Sounds like anecdotal evidence says you aren't getting much for that money, either...

[Sighound36]

I think the pricing may be the worst part about these 3 and 4 series. The 3 series is attractively priced until you realize that is a base price with no options....and the options add up to 10k+ real fast. Sounds like anecdotal evidence says you aren't getting much for that money, either...

Good observation Oculus, in the UK a new base model 4 is very attractively priced 4 channel model at £6210 +vat @ 20% this is for a base 200Mhz model

For the 1 GHz model add another £15,300 (+vat ) LOL 

They are having a promotion on the power analysis bundle and two basic probes plus the deskew fixture another £3600 (actually a fair price)

£1K for the Arb genny
Extra memory to 62.5M  £2K
Each of the serial data options (12 in total) are £1600 EACH
Basic spectrum view (which is pants imho) £1570
Spectrum bandwidth to 500Mhz increase  £2500
Each of the 8 channel logic probes are £1550 each
the probes range from £482 t £28000, yes £28000 for the Tru view probe.

It adds up very easily for this outlay you could purchase one hellva of a scope (not Tek) and have some serious change left over.

Do they feel that business users just look at the basic price?
This is joke pricing

[0culus]

Yeah, it's insane. Even if I was buying for a business with a big pile of cash on hand, I'd likely look elsewhere to get more for my money. I don't know if R&S is still doing it, but last year they were offering a fully loaded scope for $9999 US. I don't recall what kind of probes you got with the deal, but it included all options unlocked! No small amount of change still, but a hell of a deal compared to the 3 and 4 series if you have the disposable income (or budget if you are a business).

[Rich@RohdeScopesUSA]

Yeah, it's insane. Even if I was buying for a business with a big pile of cash on hand, I'd likely look elsewhere to get more for my money. I don't know if R&S is still doing it, but last year they were offering a fully loaded scope for $9999 US. I don't recall what kind of probes you got with the deal, but it included all options unlocked! No small amount of change still, but a hell of a deal compared to the 3 and 4 series if you have the disposable income (or budget if you are a business).

We're still doing it until the end of June.     Certainly not something a hobbyist would likely buy, but for a fully loaded, 4 analog plus 16 digital and 1GHz of BW, it's a pretty good deal and allows some companies the ability to get way more than they expected for their budget.

-Rich

[snoopy]

Yeah, it's insane. Even if I was buying for a business with a big pile of cash on hand, I'd likely look elsewhere to get more for my money. I don't know if R&S is still doing it, but last year they were offering a fully loaded scope for $9999 US. I don't recall what kind of probes you got with the deal, but it included all options unlocked! No small amount of change still, but a hell of a deal compared to the 3 and 4 series if you have the disposable income (or budget if you are a business).

Test equipment is a bit like cars. As soon as you drive them out of the lot their value drops considerably. Explains why ebay is doing well with 2nd hand gear

[0culus]

Yeah, it's insane. Even if I was buying for a business with a big pile of cash on hand, I'd likely look elsewhere to get more for my money. I don't know if R&S is still doing it, but last year they were offering a fully loaded scope for $9999 US. I don't recall what kind of probes you got with the deal, but it included all options unlocked! No small amount of change still, but a hell of a deal compared to the 3 and 4 series if you have the disposable income (or budget if you are a business).

Test equipment is a bit like cars. As soon as you drive them out of the lot their value drops considerably. Explains why ebay is doing well with 2nd hand gear

That's true, but it depends on the gear. Stuff like network analyzers that cover 26.5GHz and beyond still command pretty steep prices (even if they are a fraction of the original purchase price). Same goes for wideband oscilloscopes.

[snoopy]

Tektronix 4 Series MSO vs Keysight 4000A X-Series Oscilloscopes

https://www.tek.com/blog/tektronix-4-series-mso-vs-keysight-4000a-x-series-oscilloscopes

[Sighound36]

Just to redress the balance a little, below is the most comprehensive comparison of current digital oscilloscopes from many ranges and vendors.

https://cdn.teledynelecroy.com/files/whitepapers/comparing-high-resolution-oscilloscope-design-approaches-wp.pdf

 

[snoopy]

Depends who writes it of course. Watched this one last night !

[Someone]

Depends who writes it of course.

Can't play whack-a-mole with all the marketing half-truths that get pushed out as they are just too numerous.

Just to redress the balance a little, below is the most comprehensive comparison of current digital oscilloscopes from many ranges and vendors.

That document looks at it from a very specific viewpoint, taking the assumption that those are the important requirements for the user. Just as the "competitive" comparisons start with the assumption their baseline product is what you wanted to start with. As always the important requirements are application specific and can't be generalised to a global comparison.

[nctnico]

Depends who writes it of course.

Can't play whack-a-mole with all the marketing half-truths that get pushed out as they are just too numerous.

I agree. These 'comparisons' are utterly useless. Not even worth watching for fun.

[snoopy]

When it's done by an independent youtuber it's got a bit more credibility

[elektropionir]

Everything in this thread is pretty much what I have come to expect from Tektronix. Despair inducing prices and premium marketing BS.
Few years ago when Lecroy started pushing 12bit scopes, there was an article on tek homepage about how nobody needs 12bit scopes

Nevertheless, it is really sad to watch the complete hollowing out of once prosperous and iconic USA companies by these finance scumbags and private equity vampires.

[snoopy]

Everything in this thread is pretty much what I have come to expect from Tektronix. Despair inducing prices and premium marketing BS.
Few years ago when Lecroy started pushing 12bit scopes, there was an article on tek homepage about how nobody needs 12bit scopes

Nevertheless, it is really sad to watch the complete hollowing out of once prosperous and iconic USA companies by these finance scumbags and private equity vampires.

Tek even made a video about it I believe

[Sighound36]

Some very valid points chaps, once you cut through the marketing BS and have the scopes to live with for a couple of weeks that is when the wheat from the chaff becomes quite obvious. Also you need to take into account the applications you are looking to really investigate and selecting the most suitable option for the purpose

We had on loan over a period of 2 months a R&S RTO2044, A Keysight S series 8Ghz, A Tek MSO654 8Ghz and the Wavepro 804HD-MS so we really did have first hand experience with all of these upper mid range scopes.

If we would have not plumped for the leCroy, the Keysight would have been next easily.

The Tek last and the R&S third, I just do not like its interface, however others it will be different 

When looking at options in this range there is no substitute for decent hands on daily use.

[snoopy]

I believe Spectrum View is available at no additional cost on the Tek MSO 5 and 6 (optional for the MSO 4) ! This is like having a time correlated spectrum analyzer for each channel. Did you get to use it by any chance in your evaluations ?

[james_s]

It's such a shame what has happened to Tek. I absolutely love the TDS3000 and TDS700 series scopes, but pretty much everything Tek has offered since then has missed the mark IMO.

[Wuerstchenhund]

It's such a shame what has happened to Tek. I absolutely love the TDS3000 and TDS700 series scopes, but pretty much everything Tek has offered since then has missed the mark IMO.

Tek has missed the mark for a lot longer than that. It's demise started when analog scopes became a dead-end, and Tek has shown ever since that they never really 'got' digital scopes and would rather still make analog scopes.

Most of Tek's DSOs have been pretty lackluster, often hampered by weird design decisions and a slow architecture, and that includes the TDS700 Series. There were some bright spots, though, such as the TDS200 (which introduced the lunchbox format, allthough they weren't the only ones, Iwatsu had a similar scope back then which was rebaded by LeCroy), or the TDS3000 which could be battery operated. Still, both scopes were painfully slow, and aside from the form factor or battery didn't offer much over scopes from other brands. And the fact that Tek carried both well into the 2000's is testament to the general lack of innovation when it comes to scopes.

The really sad part is that they still don't seem to understand the DSO market, even after escaping the cust-cutting culture of Danaher, and I wonder how long they can afford to bleed market share while mostly relying on a brand name that was great some 30 years ago.