It's short-sighted to say "There's really no need to worry because the WS3000 is produced by Siglent." And LeCroy's "finger on the HW design" ? It takes a lot more than a finger to get a solid design. Siglent is the HW designer, not just manufacturer. That's an incredibly huge difference. LeCroy should have done it themselves if they want people to trust it's as good as 100% LeCroy after the recent siglent/lecroy products. And past products made by Iwatsu does not apply here anyway because history does not guarantee anything about future products with other partners. The most applicable recent history is the Siglent Waveace and Siglent SDS2000 . Especially given that SDS2000 and SDS3000/WS3000 were developed at the same time.
So what? The SDS2000 hardware is just fine, there is absolutely *nothing* wrong with it. The problem in that scope is the software.
The same is true for the WaveAce. The hardware is just fine (albeit a bit too low performance for that price class). It's the software that makes it suck.
For the WS3k/SDS3k, Siglent is as much hardware designer as back in the days Iwatsu was for the WaveRUnner(2) LT. As manufacturer they have some input but primary design decisions are made by LeCroy. For the WS3k/SDS3k, things like front panel are Siglent designs while the logic board is LeCroy.
I know that in your mind you have this idea from hardware issues in the SDS2000, ignoring that all its ills lie in its firmware. If you know about a hardware problem then provide some evidence that supports your speculation, otherwise shut up. Seriously.
More importantly is LeCroy's poor quality control team that gave their seal of approval to Waveace. That's just wrong. If waveaces was supposed to be a bad scope with no planned fixes and LeCroy planned that then it's hard to blindly trust the SDS/WS3000. Smart buyers should question these products.
As I already said before (and more than once!), the WaveAce scopes are bought in. They don't go through LeCroy's QC because they are bought in products, not components. QC for them lies with Siglent, and again the hardware is absolutely fine.
The WaveAce also got (and still gets) fixes, but again as this is Siglent's responsibility
1 it doesn't happen fast enough, and often new issues are introduced. Like with the SDS2000.
It certainly was a mistake by LeCroy to buy in bottom-of-the-barrel scope, and believe me they got enough flak for the WaveAce from their customers. But this isn't unique to LeCroy. The first Rigol scopes that Agilent rebadged had awful firmware, and it took quite a while for them to fix the worst problems.
A "smart buyer" knows that every T&M manufacturer came up with crap once in a while, and that includes HP/Agilent/Keysight and Tek (who still have some shit products in their portfolio). That's almost unavoidable. A "Smart Buyer" therefore judges its product by its own merits and a manufacturer by the overall performance of its products and not by a single exemption. Because if he doesn't then the "smart buyer" will not be able to buy anything from anyone.
Just like any other spec. I like LeCroy, but can't give them an automatic pass because it says LeCroy and has LeCroy firmware. Some reviews would be nice, but for whatever reason there is very little out there.
Yes, there isn't much, but LeCroy has been pretty cautious in terms of giving kits out for review, and it's just now that they begin to open up a little bit, at least to reviewers like Shariar and Mike who have earned themselves a solid reputation.
I hope it's a good scope, but it's disingenuous for you to dismiss other scopes as much as you do and sell LeCroy scopes as hard as you do without acknowledging the risk associated with a design by siglent / lecroy.
There isn't any risk, aside your highly irrational fears stuck in your head. The WaveSurfer 3k is out with customers for almost a year now and they seem to love it enough that for a while LeCroy couldn't come up with enough scopes.
Look, it's obvious you have a grudge against Siglent because you felt let down by the SDS2000, and to a certain extend I can understand that. But it's really getting silly with your attempts to talk by some hardware issues where there are none. The SDS2000 scope is a pretty fine piece of hardware. It's problem lies in its software, and that is also the problem of the WaveAce. If you have evidence that shows there are hardware issues then present them, otherwise you should really stop spreading your irrational fears.
If you owned one or used one at work and were answering technical questions I might give much more credence to your sales pitch, at least if you stuck with facts. For example, you incorrectly stated it has 6 math functions instead of 2 so you do not appear to know THAT much about the scope .
I never said I knew everything about the scope, and I'm pretty sure I already stated that I had one for one day only (these smaller scopes are not the ones I usually use for work). I also have worked with the Agilent DSOX3k on a few occasions. And I stand by my opinion that the WS3k is a great scope in this price bracket, more capable than the DSOX3k, and (as proven!) also less expensive. Considering the amount of functionality in the WS3k, it's difficult to get to know it inside out after a day. However, it certainly has me more impressed than the Tek MDO3k we got for a demo, but that has already been discussed elsewhere so I'm not going there any more.
And quite frankly, even using one for only a day is still a lot more than you have learnt about a scope you're so dismissive of.
Also, I'm not trying to sell anything, I'm merely stating my opinion and my experience as I guess many other people here do. And so far my experience with LeCroy has been very positive. You can discount that as "sales pitch" if you want, I really don't care. It's not about you, it's about the OP who came here for advice. How about you respect that?
BTW, I also stated several times that the OP should get all scopes he considers in and try it himself, but I guess this is just another thing you didn't pay attention to.
You stated that when comparing it's math functions as an advantage over Agilent 5yr "rehashed" scope. Not a big deal on it's own, but combined with you dismissing other brands as much as you do I expected more knowledge of the product you are pushing.
And quite frankly, from someone who knows neither the DSOX3k nor the WS3k I would have expected a bit less negativity.
And what new technology is so amazing in SDS/WS3000 anyway compared to agilent and tek? Yes, looks like a decent scope, but nothing special compared to agilent 3000 and tek's MDO3000 offerings.
If saving of several hundred to over $4k is nothing special to you, while at the same time offering more sample memory, better FFT and much more functionality then I'd say you don't really know what you're talking about. But then, this just reinforces the impage you're presenting here, which is the one of a very irrational guy looking to push his agenda.
I of course I also get that the real problem of the WS3k is that it's not a Tek MDO3k. What would be a posting from Don without at least one mandatory mention of the Tek MDO3000 even when it wasn't even part of the argument. Talk about a well placed sales pitch there
But then, these days Tek certainly needs every help they can to sell their scopes.
Really Don, I understand that you feel screwed by Siglent, but man, get over it. Your erratic and irrational blabering doesn't really add anything that helps the OP. Again, if you know from a hardware problem in the WS3000 (or even the SDS2000!), come up with evidence (or at least a reference) that supports your speculation or shut up. At the moment your ramblings only make you look stupid, seriously.
The Op already got the recommendation to test the scopes of choice in his own environment so he can see firsthand how good or bad they are for what he wants to do. Also no reason why this should not include the scope you seem to be so attached to that you feel the need to defend it wherever criticism is expressed, the Tek MDO3000. I just hope the OP gets a better unit from Tek than we did when we tried that thing, or they're in for another embarrassment.
1 - This refers to internal obligations between LeCroy and Siglent; of course for the WaveAce LeCroy carries overall responsibility towards the end users