But seriously... I've said it before, I'll say it again: having a cheap POS meter, scope, etc on hand is just cheap insurance; especially the older EDU models, since they're usually made of cheapest possible discrete components so can be fixed easily.
May I remind you that I have 25 DMM and 30+ scopes ?
I have plenty to choose from !
When I don't want to risk my nice gear (nice to me anyway, thing what you want of my old stuff I don't care...), scope wise I have this old Hameg basic analog scope, with a decent B/W of 60MHz.
For meters, I have 3 analog meters, one of which I don't care about, didn't pay for it and no sentimental value, and loads of it for sale here at any time, for 20 Euros. It's a Metrix 462. Excellent analog Meter, it's like the " Simpson "in the US, millions were made, many revisions over the decades...
If I want a fancy digital meter than recently I got this Metrix MX 20 puppy. Bottom of the barrel performance wise, but has all the basic features you want in a DMM, and it's an ASYC design so excellent build quality alround. Also has huge fat digits, a joy to look at. Best of all, it's pretty much NIB yet I paid only 10 Euros for it ! What's the catch I hear you say ? Well seller sold it as "defective"/ for parts, because he was honest enough to say that the meter drains a fresh set of AA batteries in a couple of hours, even when turned off. I confirmed that... now need to investigate !
I tried the meter and it works absolutely perfectly well, it's just fine....so I don't think the ASIC in it is dead at all... the drain must be something analogy. With some luck there is a electrolytic caps decoupling the batteries and it's on its way out.. something like that. So once it's fixed it will be my "in case it goes wrong" DMM !
Okayyy... You just seemed overly fond of your METRIX DMMs... and I get brand loyalty. I mourned the loss of a Fluke 87 I'd owned for 30 years until I bought first my 189, then my 27. Now I finally feel more than adequately [FLUKE]ed...
That aside... the Aneng 8xxx are well-known to be excellent knock-around meters and far better than the price would ever suggest, albeit with a few quirks. Truly great bang/buck, and I don't regret a penny spent on the two I have. And equally, I won't shed a tear for either if it takes one for the team; that's why I got 'em in the first place.
mnem
Just as I call BS about patriotism, I call BS about brand loyalty. It's just a marketing tool to manipulate the customer... I am not for sale.
99% of Metrix stuff since the '70's, is overprice junk, low spec, crap build quality, designed NOT to be serviced, no spares avaialbel, on service manuals 99% of the time. The only reason for their survival is the education market. School and universities because it's high volume, politically driven, and they are happy paying overpriced basic junik as long as it powered up and let's you do bottom of the barrel experiments in the lab for the students.
I don't give a crap about Metrix or anyone else.... what I do care about are the 0.5% of products they or anyone else made, that I actually like ! That 0.1% yes, I am "passionnate about " !
In the case of the DMM, it sop happens that Metrix made a superb alround product with their ASYC range of meters, and the MX 54/55/56 series, the top of the line, for its features and performance, looks/industrial design (subjective but well , it clicks for me) etc... and seeing the price you can get theml at here... they represent absolutely tremendous value for money. When you can get a MX 53C for 60 Euros, a MX 54 for 90 or a 0.025% MX 56 for 120... absolutely nothing beats it, by a long shot, on the used market, and it makes buying a brand new chinese DMM a non-sense.
Bang for buck, the old Fluke DMMs are way over priced in comparison.
Only reason to buy a brand new Chinese meter would be...
1) You don't mind the cheap and childish look and feel.
2) You absolutely want a warranty on your product.
3) You don't care about reputation / track record / reliability.
4) You want it right now, in brand new condition, you don't want to search for month and month for a used item.... which is very understandable !
I also buy them because Metrix a local brand so they are actually available... but I guess in the USA, it makes sense to buy Fluke because it's good stuff and it's readily available there.
I guess in Germany you would buy Gossen Metrawatt, and in the Netherlands you would buy Philips...
I hope you get it now, and that you don't believe I have any kind of brand loyalty wrt Tektronix eh ?
You see the 30 Tek scopes I bought and think brand loyalty.. ridiculous.
What you see is just a collection of the few Tek scopes I happen to like, so I tend to many of them... but you don't see the many Tek scopes I don't like and will never buy !
I just buy the TE that I happen to like, whatever the brand or vintage...