Let's leave this topic go back to what it is: a place to discuss details of new SDS1104X-U series from Siglent..
Actually, I am finding this whole discussion enlightening and very helpful.
I'm currently in the market for a couple of entry-level scopes and am looking for some first hand knowledge of these various units, especially people who have used more than one for direct comparison. I've been looking for a good youtube comparison series or something but haven't really found much in the way of good resources yet. I'd really love to see Dave do an updated entry-level scope showdown, for example.
Currently my personal DSO capabilities consist of the grand total of an old K7103 Velleman kit that I built in the early 90s, so a whole whopping 32 MS/sec, 4k per channel memory depth, 100 V peak input capability and a parallel port interface, so any of these recent models are going to be a huge improvement.
If this were a year ago, I would say for sure I would just grab a couple Rigol DS1054Zs and be done with it. They're a mature, well known and understood quantity with a proven track record. They've made a gazillion of them so even far-future servicing should be possible since partially dead "parts units" with salvageable bits will likely be available far into the future.
It looks like I can buy a couple of DS1054Zs for under $420 CAD each after tequipment's free shipping, "we'll pay your sales tax" promo and the EEVblog discount if they'll let me stack all those together. That seems like a bargain as far as scope-for-the-money goes. I would be hacking them to 100 Mhz and full options, of course. One will be for me personally at home and the other for general purpose use at my own small business and I don't really foresee any medium-term requirements for anything significantly higher than what is currently done with the K7103 and newer decent PC software and the aging, worn out old Tek 40 MHz dual channel with the ailing, fading CRT, etc.
I have also been considering the Siglent SDS1104X-E, since it does seem overall to be a more capable scope, dual ADCs, hackable to 200 MHz, better FFT, faster processor in general, runs Linux directly so potentially has the ability to add some utilities and customizations, etc. but they are quite a bit more money. At $630 CAD each, that is pretty much exactly 1.5 times as much as the DS1054Z and I'm simply not sure they're really worth the extra money for my typical use cases. I could buy three DS1054Zs for the price of two SDS1104X-Es.
I would probably never use the ability to add the digital inputs or signal gen options, wifi or anything like that. I would rather just use a separate inexpensive logic analyzer, for example. As for the fancier FFT, I'm already used to just capturing data using the K7103 and pulling it into the computer where I can do whatever I want to it despite the limitations of the FFT in the "normal" software, although I can see times where something closer to realtime could potentially be useful, I guess. Things like having 256 shades on the intensity grading instead of 64
is better, but I don't see anything like that being a "killer feature" either. The internal web server interface looks convenient but again, I don't see that becoming in any way critical for my typical workflows and use cases. CAN decoding might be useful I suppose, but again a dedicated solution is easy enough and cheap if I need it.
The SDS1104X-U adds a new dimension to the mix, yet it seems like its only real advantage over the DS1054Z would be speedier UI and a few random bells and whistles for the most part, and I don't expect it to be as inexpensive as the Rigol. (Tequipment does list it but no pricing is shown so I assume they don't even stock it yet to compare?) I have personally never used a 1054Z or any of the Siglents so I have absolutely no first hand knowledge of either series in any way, but the Rigol front panel even looks like options and UI menus, etc. might be easier to work with in general with twice the number of screen buttons for a non-touchscreen scope, etc.
This leads me to suspect that the good ol' 1054Z is
probably still the way to go, mostly really just for its ubiquity more than anything else, but I am looking to following any related discussions or especially, like I said, any kind of in-depth comparison or shootout or whatnot. The one comparison video that I found to be helpful so far really didn't bode well for the SDS1104X-E. For example, while it did still show waveforms above the -3 dB point, up to 150 MHz, the Rigol still showed usable waveforms up to 430 MHz. While the amplitude obviously wouldn't be correct, the fact that they can even display something at all on a single channel way up at that far above the rated bandwidth is the kind of thing that makes me still think I'd like them...
Any pointers to suggested comparison resources are highly appreciated!
If I'm convinced that spending the extra dough on something that really is "fancier," I'm always in the "buy once, cry once" camp when it comes to buying tools, but I also can't spend a fortune on scopes right now either.
Thank you all for your informative discussions. Please carry on!