One thing to keep in mind, the rated voltage on the inputs is DC voltage. For audio related systems the frequency is low enough that it can be considered DC but if you were to enter into the radio frequency realms (getting into 10's of MHz signals) then you need to follow the derating curve. Like I said, this is something you should know if you venture into other frequency domains but for audio is not really very important.
As for Kiriakos, he means well but unfortunately he thinks everyone needs to be a complete expert use any equipment and needs expert grade equipment to get anything out of it. He doesn't see different shades of gray in everyones usage requirements. It isn't personal, he reacts this way in every test equipment topic.
Also, I see very little discussion on digital oscilloscopes. I will assume that means that you have already decided on analog only.
As for Kiriakos, he means well but unfortunately he thinks everyone needs to be a complete expert use any equipment and needs expert grade equipment to get anything out of it. He doesn't see different shades of gray in everyones usage requirements. It isn't personal, he reacts this way in every test equipment topic.
Also, I see very little discussion on digital oscilloscopes. I will assume that means that you have already decided on analog only.
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@Kiriakos - I've clearly upset you. Probably better to just let the conversation lie.
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Thanks - yeah I'm backing away from that conversation. Appreciate your advice and it shows just how much I don't know - but I'm keen to get in and explore.
Actually I haven't dismissed digital. I'm bidding on an old Tek 2225 but if that goes up I'm tempted by a new Hantek 70MHz 2 channel digital for £180 plus postage. Not from China either (seller in Germany).
I would advise if you go the digital route, save up a bit more and get the Rigol DS1054Z. I am assuming the scope you are talking about is a Hantek DSO5000 series scope. If so, the Rigol is a DRAMATICALLY better scope. You get four channels, way more memory points, loads more triggering and it has intensity grading which gives a analog phosphor like display to a digital scope. Additionally, it is hackable; using a pretty simple procedure, you can actually generate keys which unlock ALL of the features on the scope. So you get 100MHz bandwidth, even more triggering abilities, serial decode ability (with four channels you can debug things like SPI), etc. You can even trigger off of things like digital bit combinations (useful if you send a wake command to a device and it crashes, you can monitor the command and the power rails of the device). It is considered one of the best values in scopes right now. I can give you a full breakdown on the differences if you want.
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Outbid on the Tek.
The new scope I was considering was Hantek DSO5072P
Hantek DSO5072P Digital Oscilloscope 1GSa/s | eBay
Just to be clear - I will ONLY ever want to use this for audio signals passing through valve amps, plus for example measuring ripple voltages in power supply. Initially audio amps, likely guitar amps in the future. I've no interest in microelectronics and at 53 I'm unlikely to become interested in it. Dual channels I can definitely see the advantage (particularly as the audio amps I'm building are balanced) but 4 channels is probably overkill.
The new scope I was considering was Hantek DSO5072P
Hantek DSO5072P Digital Oscilloscope 1GSa/s | eBay
Just to be clear - I will ONLY ever want to use this for audio signals passing through valve amps, plus for example measuring ripple voltages in power supply. Initially audio amps, likely guitar amps in the future. I've no interest in microelectronics and at 53 I'm unlikely to become interested in it. Dual channels I can definitely see the advantage (particularly as the audio amps I'm building are balanced) but 4 channels is probably overkill.
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I can't help but feel that a good analogue scope (CRT based) is going to be more suitable as a 'first scope', and one reason would be that the display tends to be more 'honest' and there are no question marks over whether you are looking at some 'artifact' of the digital processing/sampling rather than something that is really present in the waveform being examined.
There are plenty of scopes on ebay. Have a look under Hitachi and Trio names. This is described as 'Mint condition' and in original packaging.
Trio 35MHz Dual Trace Oscilloscope. | eBay
There are plenty of scopes on ebay. Have a look under Hitachi and Trio names. This is described as 'Mint condition' and in original packaging.
Trio 35MHz Dual Trace Oscilloscope. | eBay
Unless you are looking at a power supply with loads of ripple (multiple mV) then most oscilloscopes with their 1mV/div or 2mV/div or worse 5mV/div (the Tek 2225 has max vertical resolution of 5mV/div) are not that good at seeing the ripple present. The exception being the old Tektronix boat anchor 7000 mainframes with the 7A22 module. That module can see down to 10uV/div.
That being said, based on your description of what you want to do, there is very little reason to step up to a digital scope. In fact, without intensity grading (which the Hantek lacks) a digital scope can be a bit harder to use. Not because of "artifacts" that Mooly mentioned because frankly those are pretty rare anymore. But because it shows you the 100% true trace, noise and all and without intensity grading the trace gives ALL noise the same importance. So something that is a one time glitch shows up the same intensity as a repeating glitch. On an analog scope, these glitches are invisible unless they are heavily repeating. Obviously, this can be good and bad, good if you need to find the glitch (which the analog scope hides) but bad if you can't tell what is a single glitch and what is something to be worried about.
The biggest places that digital scopes excel are in waveform capture, a single shot and you can see exactly what the waveform looks like and analyze it. Additionally, you can get features like FFT (though DSOs tend to have limited memory depth for the FFT which affects resolution).
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