Yes it is very sad that's my experience in Australia, and why I have no sympathy for the Australian retail chain when it comes to online shopping. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those people who picks the brains of a retailer and then goes off and buys it cheaper online. I don't have anything to do with them and do my own research, part of which is why I'm here, and am effectively invisible to the local retailers. As far as "naming and shaming", that's not appropriate as firstly my experiences are from many different sectors and secondly I have witnessed, first hand, the enthusiasm with which some companies will commence legal action for defamation to bully critical comments to silence, despite the fact they have no hope of winning the case. Others should seek their own legal advice if presented with this situation, however I believe one of the tenets of a defamation action is that as the defendant you are forced to defend the case. If you do not you will, by default, lose the case. In Australia we have no SLAPP legislation or equivalent. All very much OT and not something I want to get in to, but trust me when I say, again in my opinion, it's generally not worth going there. Take it up with the party, and if they continue to behave in a way you feel is inappropriate then vote with your feet. ... as I have done. That's my opinion and other's opinion may well be different.
I can have a functional DSO landed on my desk for a little over A$300. Many people would spend that on a couple of nights out. Less than 3 tanks of fuel. Half of a weekend away ... shall I go on?
One of what I consider an outright scam I have witnessed locally is that it is my responsibility to pay for a courier for the faulty product to and from the distributer. At the very least to them. So they've sold me something that has failed within "warranty" and I'm expected to pay to courier the product to them? On a $3-400 purchase that is a significant percentage of the price. Now whether some here think a $350 DSO is good or bad is not the point, that is their opinion and thousands of people have coped just fine with their buying decision. Yes if I was you I'd "set my sights higher" and buy a more expensive oscilloscope. However I'm not you, I'm me
So I can be equally aghast as to why somebody would want to buy something that is far more expensive than another one that will be perfectly adequate for the job. I've said many times that this is no longer my occupation and quite possibly won't get much use. It's also not especially important to me. I do want to ensure the purchase will indeed do the job, but I think pretty much anything will.
While I'm not a wealthy person, nor am I destitute! If this was an important thing for me I would be quite happy to spend a significant amount of money. But it's not, so I won't!
I'm surprised that some people have difficulty in empathising with other people's perspective and appreciating that what may be important to them may not be important to others.
As far as jitter, yes I appreciate what may be a theoretical use, I was involved with this area in regard to jitter in clocks, hence why I asked. But I wonder how many people ACTUALLY have a need to date stamp in this case an A/D converter to "nanosecond accuracy" off a GPS signal.
If of interest to where I'm at with all this, I'm currently considering a Siglent SDS1202X-E. The irony of that is despite all I've said above, it's waaay over specced for basic audio/PS work I mentioned. It's also from an Australian retailer, one in fact I just bought another piece of test equipment from. Whether that eventuates we'll have to see, but I'd like to get something here before much longer. Despite being seen as an odd candidate considering my comments, I always like to keep an open mind and try not to be biased one way or the other. One of the significant considerations was the fact that many of the models popular with members here are actually quite old models. They may well have been updated, but the "bones" still seem quite ancient to me. The Siglent is a relatively new design, offers serial decodng, and I was doing some I2C work a while back where that may have been handy (probably not, but hey it's available), it has relatively generous memory for an oscilloscope in that price range, etc etc etc We'll see. The bottom line is the most basic model will cost me around A$320. The 1202 will be around twice the price. However in real terms the difference is as above; 3 tanks of fuel etc. I take the train and am a general tight-wad with money, so don't begrudge spending money if
I can see the value in doing so.
As I mentioned I have been around the block a few times here and had relatively good equipment available to me, that included 4 channel oscilloscopes. I didn't use 4 channels then so see no reason why I would suddenly see a need to have one now.