I think it better to buy whomever provides a bang for buck, brands aren't useless, but its not the best rubric to gauge their products by.
Things change: as of now, Rigol's star is rising, Teks is slowly falling, and LeCroy has taken a tailspin. Agilent has, IMHO, maintained a stellar reputation, but its not the Bill and Dave's HP, but its better than no HP at all [The new HP by the way, is a fading star too]. Now, all that is not because of the brand name, but by weighing the quality of each product they produced as I or others who tell me, have encountered over the past decades and see how each fairs.
I like Sencore's PR57, its a model that's fairly popular even today on eBay, never get's a price lower than $200, for something so low tech. Today's Sencore is niched in the video industry, no longer in broad based cheapo T&M, and its one of the few companies that makes electronics in the USA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SencoreI admire both BK and Sencore for surviving for so long, they clearly exploit their niches; but I don't own any of their products as its niche, isn't mine; but it doesn't make them a dufus.
On the topic of this eload, you'll find its OEM is a company BK owns, so technically its not an OEM. However, the device itself is a unique design, and what clones exist so far are traceable to the OEM, Itech; its biggest clone maker is supposedly an ex-engineer who has struck out on his own, Maynuo.
Alas, one issue is the price of a Maynuo in the USA is the same price as the BK model, whereas if bought in China itself by taobao.com, and caveat emptor too, its far far cheaper.
Commenting on the posts on the 1st page;
I didn't see anyone add Sencore to the list of 'farming out' their products and claiming they were their design.
I will never buy a B&K product again and I'm not very impressed with Sencore either. Actually never was.