I am planning to buy an oscilloscope. I don’t deal with electronics extensively; it is more of a hobby to me. So, I don't wish to spend too much money on this. Besides, I am a newbie to all this. So, I guess any oscilloscope with basic fautures will suffice. I have finalized on two very basic oscilloscopes, one analog and another digital (both are china made):



(1) HTC ST-16B (Analog)

Details: http://www.htcinstrument.com/ST-16B.html

Catalogue: http://www.htcinstrument.com/cataloge/OSCILLOSCOPE/ST-16B.pdf



(2) DSO 201 Nano portable digital oscilloscope with PC interface. This is fairly popular and I am sure many of you have already used it.



I have to choose between the two.



The price of both the analog and the digital is almost the same. The analog one is obviously robust and its maximum input voltage is 600 Vpp whereas the digital one has max input voltage of only 80 Vpp. Portability of the digital one has no use to me. However, the bandwidth of the analog one is 10 MHz whereas the bandwidth of the digital one is 25 MHz. I have read negative reviews of DSO 201 that say that it is not precise or reliable. I haven’t read any reviews of the analog one but HTC is known to offer moderate quality products at low prices.


Which one do you think is better? Please recommend.

Also, if you own any of the above mentioned oscilloscopes then please share your experience.

 

Just playing around and buy the rigol DZ1054z and be done..

 

Which one do you think is better?

Better is subjective...

How much bench space can you devote to a scope? Do you need (vs want) it to be portable?

Used Tek scopes can be found for a good price if you take the time to look. I have a couple DSO's (Tek and HP) and half a dozen or so analog scopes (all Tek) and I prefer to use the analog scopes most of the time.