Rigol DS4024 opinions

[rsjsouza]

The DS4000 provides a solid performance as an oscilloscope. Protocol decoders work on the whole acquisition memory but are slow, especially if you use several. FFT is a bad joke. Math is okay-ish except for the derivative. The user interface is acceptable but if you've got the direct comparison of an analog scope or a Keysight (or some other digital scope with a fast U/I), it feels very sluggish. Measurements and statistics are nice and plentiful. As one of the few scopes on the market in its class, it provides a reference input. Yet, it's a good idea to use it since the internal clock is somewhat jittery... I'ld only go for a DS4000 if you get it at a bargain. Exact model is unimportant, provided it's got four channels. Bandwidth can be "improved" with riglol. The "E" models are some kind of unknown territory, I wouldn't get any of those. Rigol US offer a DS4014 in their clearance sales for 1840USD. If that's an acceptable price is something everyone has to answer for himself. I don't know if there's something like the clearance sales available to your country. YMMV

Good summary. The DS4014 locally is going to come in around $2100 US. Maybe not worth worrying about the 4Gsa/s vs 2Gsa/s on the Siglent when everything is put into perspective. Plus "upgrading" the rigol opens a few warranty worm cans.

The "upgrading" on the Rigol is a standard procedure the manufacturer does when selling upgrades to their products as well, thus it is not necessarily an untested and unsupported modification. It can also be reverted.

The higher sample rate will make a difference only near the higher frequency of 500MHz for the DS4000 or in faster serial streams where there are more samples to decode the data with accuracy (I haven't experienced the issues mentioned by Tom above, but YMMV). Given that both the Rigol and the Siglent use interleaved ADCs, just be warned that the 2GSPS for the Siglent is only available if you use channels 1&3 or 2&4. This is ok for sinewaves up to the frequency of operation of 300MHz.

Also, the FFT of the Siglent is almost as bad as the entire Rigol product line (16k points). If you need this function, be warned this is still a very limited number of points.

Looking at both oscilloscopes and the price between the 300MHz Siglent and the 100MHz Rigol, the only edge I see for the Siglent is this one still had a firmware update last september - a sensible advantage, but spaced almost a year before the last, which also indicates this product is reaching is maturity phase. Obviously that the offers may vary where you live.