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Scope Advice Needed

70.171.34.17
Posted on October 17, 2014 at 08:52:22
FlaCharlie
Audiophile

Posts: 940
Location: Gville, FL
Joined: June 1, 2003
 I've never used a scope before but I'm considering adding one to my bench. I'm looking for something very basic. I don't really know anything about scopes so it's hard to know what to look for.

While searching for a regulated PS for a friend, I came across this unit from Velleman but found no reviews of it. I noticed that they also have a unit that connects to a PC that gets decent reviews but I have a desktop Mac and don't really want to buy another computer just for the shop.

I work on vintage and DIY tube amps and preamps and nothing over 500v. I have a 500v bench PS so the low voltage PS section is not an issue.

So, would this unit be a good choice?

. . . Charlie

 

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RE: Scope Advice Needed, posted on October 17, 2014 at 09:37:31
Chip647
Audiophile

Posts: 2649
Location: The South
Joined: December 24, 2012
 Get something like this.

 

RE: Scope Advice Needed, posted on October 17, 2014 at 09:51:22
Bill Way
Audiophile

Posts: 1884
Location: Toms River NJ
Joined: May 28, 2012
Contributor
  Since: December 14, 2012
 Tektronix and HP are both outstanding. From time to time some tech schools put up a bunch of LG scopes on ebay, and when they do you can get one with very little use for $150ish or less.

WW
"Put on your high heeled sneakers. Baby, we''re goin'' out tonight.

 

Ditto that, posted on October 17, 2014 at 09:59:34
caffeinator
Audiophile

Posts: 1729
Location: Pacific Northwest
Joined: August 22, 2003
 A Tek 465B is a great scope - I have and use one and it's been rock solid for me. There are, of course, lots of other options, but for DIY and vintage tube audio, it's a great choice.

 

RE: Scope Advice Needed, posted on October 17, 2014 at 10:12:23
Triode_Kingdom
Audiophile

Posts: 10042
Location: Central Texas
Joined: September 24, 2006
 If a used instrument is OK, I agree with the advice below about Tek and HP. Also, my personal scope is a 100 MHz Hitachi V-1050F. Cost me over $1K way back when, now they're so cheap on the used market, you could buy six at that price. When mine was new, a 100 MHz bandwidth scope was upper tier; now that's just routine. I also like the older LeCroy 400 MHz scopes like the 9310, but they're a little more costly. Incidentally, one of the more expensive components in all this will be the probes. Quality 100 MHz probes - especially those that are switchable from 1:1 to 10:1 - don't come cheap (compared to the price of a used scope). The $15-20 versions are Chinese junk. I won't use them even as a hobby.

 

RE: Scope Advice Needed, posted on October 17, 2014 at 12:13:57
wheezer
Audiophile

Posts: 4309
Joined: January 24, 2001
 Agree with the rest on the scope. You'll probably need HV probes.
I have both a CRT Sencore and a digital TEK.
The display on the CRT beats the digital hands down.
As for a sig. gen.....GIGO! don't skimp here. Find one with very low distortion. TEK SG505
.... The calibration of all my vintage TEK and Sencore bench gear is spot on.
The TEK digital from a tech. school is way out of calibration....go figure.

Cheers,
W

 

This is what you want and many of us on the forum use them inclduing , posted on October 17, 2014 at 15:02:20
Michael Samra
Dealer

Posts: 36118
Location: saginaw michigan
Joined: January 30, 2005
 wheezer and myself and several others..These were 4k dollar scopes when new and they are perfect for audio and have a frequency counter built in and the only thing that ever goes wrong is the modules need to pulled out and sprayed with tuner cleaner every few years.I use the standard 100mhz probes with mine and you can buy them cheap on ebay and I haven't had any issues whatsoever. You can also buy new probes from Sencore but they are more money. You could mske an offer of 65 dollars and I bet you could get it.

"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong" H. L. Mencken

 

Here is my scope in action., posted on October 17, 2014 at 15:10:53
Michael Samra
Dealer

Posts: 36118
Location: saginaw michigan
Joined: January 30, 2005









"
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong" H. L. Mencken

 

RE: Scope Advice Needed, posted on October 19, 2014 at 19:23:05
Gingertube
Audiophile

Posts: 545
Location: South Oz
Joined: October 8, 2004
 Many good recommendations below.
I personnally use a modern Chinese Digital Oscilloscope
BUT I have been using oscilloscopes in the day job for 45 years.

For those who have never used an oscilloscope before a Digital oscilloscope is a way to go wrong with confidence. It is very easy to miss exactly what you are trying to see. If you set the triggering wrongly then what you wanted to see may well be in the non displayed part of the memory. Also the advanced Digital functions like Fast Fouier Transforms (FFT) for distortion analysis are of very limited or NO use because of the 8 bit digitiser. Any distortion product less than -40dB will NOT be seen. Many of these oscilloscopes have very limited input voltage rating and X100 probes are almost certainly required for looking around the high voltage parts of a tube amp.

An Analog Scope will not give you these troubles.

Cheers,
Ian

 

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