Gould Classic 9500 4x400MHz, 2GSa/s - Is it worth buying?

[Hydrawerk]

Does somebody here know the Gould Classic 9500 digital scope? Is it worth buying for 900 US Dollars (=17900 CZK)? Doesn't somebody have the user manual in pdf? Well, it seems that not many Gould DSOs were sold worldwide... What is the screen like? CRT? The specs are quite interesting. 4x400MHz, 2GSa/s Unfortunately, it has about 12 kilograms weight. The whole machine is quite big and heavy. 
http://www.elexbrno.cz/detail.php?proId=765&secId=115
http://www.ebay.com/itm/GOULD-Classic-9500-Oscilloscope-4x-400MHz-2GSa-s-DSO-/230909783441
I could only find an article written in Polish language. It seems that this scope was manufactured about year 1998. Compared to this, the HP 54600 series from early 1990s are quite compact and lightweight scopes. 

[Hydrawerk]

Next photos

[Hydrawerk]

OK, nobody is familiar with this scope, so it must be a very rare machine, that was never sold in big numbers. It seems that it is not a good idea to buy it. 

[mikeselectricstuff]

I think this must be one of the last scopes they made before they went titsup.
$900 is an OK-ish price for that spec, if it works and there aren't any serious bugs.

[Wuerstchenhund]

Does somebody here know the Gould Classic 9500 digital scope? Is it worth buying for 900 US Dollars (=17900 CZK)?

In my opinion, $900 is a lot of money for a scope from a manufacturer that doesn't exist anymore and where Service Manuals, spares or even basic help will be extremely hard to obtain. And with similar scopes (i.e. HP 54542C, 4x 500MHz 2GSa/s with LED screen) going for around the same amount or even less, I think that $900 is actually quite a lot of money for that scope.

[Hydrawerk]

Has anybody actually used this scope? Why did the the Gould company go bankrupt? Weren't their scopes full of bugs or so?

[free_electron]

yep. i have used gould's . loooong ago. like 1991.. digital machine.
very limited in memory like 4k or so...
gould was an 'old' scope maker. they been around for a long time , but had trouble keeping up with the rest and went belly-up...
i would not buy it. anything in it is unobtainium.... very few were sold and if it dies its game over...

[Hydrawerk]

(...)very few were sold (...)

That's what I expected... Well, I would buy the scope for $100... 

[nctnico]

You could contact the seller and see if you can make a deal. Because very few where produced (sold) its unlikely they used custom parts. Some parts will be obsolete though. But then again, oscilloscopes usually last quite long. Maybe you could go there to look and pick it up. The Czech Republick has a nice country side and nice roads.

[grumpydoc]

very limited in memory like 4k or so...

The listing says 5k but there's a datasheet which seems (sorry, my Polish is non-existent) to say 50k points and 200kpoints for one channel.

i would not buy it. anything in it is unobtainium.... very few were sold and if it dies its game over...

And a new DSO would be soooo much more repairable? 

Anything new with the same bandwidth and sample rate is going to be at least $3k, probably more like $5k - OK you get a warranty and if it dies after that the manufacturer will probably repair it in exchange for $$$ but if you can't afford a four figure sum to start with it's game over.

Looking at the 'scopes on ebay.com it's also probably the best deal for the money - again looking at sample rate and front end bandwidth. There are a couple of Lecroy's about the same money but they are the 93xx series (I think one was a 9354). These are OK 'scopes (I have two) but have a monochrome screen and only 500Ms/s (though you can combine this for 2Gs/s on one channel). Their main advantage over the Gould is that ful service info is available - mind you if the big front end ASICs die it's game over as Dave's videos on the 9384 show.

To the OP - I'd try to clarify with the seller whether it is 5k or 50k points per channel. If it's 50k points then it looks a good 'scope for the money. If it's 5k points - well it's not a bad 'scope per-se but it won't be quite as flexible. Either way try to negotiate the price down a bit.

[grumpydoc]

i.e. HP 54542C, 4x 500MHz 2GSa/s with LED screen

Yes, there is one at $800, though the buy it now price is $1100 and the OP is in the Czech Republic so there will be another $150 shipping, plus import duty. I suspect the fact that the Gould is also in the Czech Republic means that it would be the better buy - of course if he could get the whole deal down below $900 the HP is probably the better 'scope.

However the average fleabay price for the HP seems at least 2x the asking price for the Gould - the lowest I could find after that was $1,885.00

[nctnico]

If you are up for some tinkering to fix the well known problems a Tektronix TDS500 or TDS700 series scope can be bought for a couple of hundred dollars. There are also many parts for sale.

[Wuerstchenhund]

Yes, there is one at $800, though the buy it now price is $1100 and the OP is in the Czech Republic so there will be another $150 shipping, plus import duty. I suspect the fact that the Gould is also in the Czech Republic means that it would be the better buy - of course if he could get the whole deal down below $900 the HP is probably the better 'scope.

Even if it costs a bit more it's still the better scope. As someone else said, most parts in tha Gould scope are unobtainium, and not even a Service Manual is available. Plus the last Gould scopes were known to be a bit buggy.

I guess even a 54542A (which has a mono CRT) would be a better buy (and these can be found for a lot less), and a budget of $900 with some luck and patience could even buy a LeCroy 9300 Series scope.

For $900, there are many better deals out there.

However the average fleabay price for the HP seems at least 2x the asking price for the Gould - the lowest I could find after that was $1,885.00

I think you mix up asking price and the price the scope actually sells for. There is a lot of extremely overpriced stuff on ebay, especially from certain US sellers. Just because they think it's worth $1,885.00 (or they hope they will find an idiot paying that much) doesn't mean it sells for that price. Many of these scopes are listed for more than a year at the same price, with no sale. Apparently these sellers don't really understand economics and what 'dead capital' means.

[krivx]

i would not buy it. anything in it is unobtainium.... very few were sold and if it dies its game over...

And a new DSO would be soooo much more repairable? 

A new DSO will have a warranty...

[grumpydoc]

A new DSO will have a warranty...

Yes, I think I mentioned this as an advantage of buying new.

A new 'scope with similar front end bandwidth and sample rate will be at least 5x the cost. Just looking at Farnell's web site a Hameg HMO3524 (350MHz, 4 channel, 4GS/s) is just shy of £4k ($6k) - OK, it's a hugely better 'scope and does have a 5-year warranty but if you can't afford $6k (I certainly couldn't) it's a non-starter.

For the same price as the Gould (about $900/£600) you are looking at perhaps a new Rigol DS1102D - 2 channels, 100MHz and 1GS/s, a nice 'scope by the look of it and the MSO capabilities and deeper sample memories are much better than the Gould. Not sure how much warranty Rigol gives you.

Whether that is the better 'scope to buy depends on what the OP needs - perhaps 400MHz bandwidth is merely a "nice to have" - chances are it is for a hobyist - but if its a "need to have" the Rigol won't cut it. I also don't know how easy (or expensive) Rigols are to get hold of in the Czech Republic.

At the end of the day, however, the question was "is the price reasonable" which it probably is given what else you can get hold of for that sort of money. Whether it's the best buy is harder to answer.