Oscilloscopes - what specs to look for?

eyrepm

Don’t listen to those saying 20MHz is overkill.
You want at least 20MHz or higher, so oscillations can be found viewed and rectified, dual trace so you can compare channels, and a decent brand with good quality probes.
Other wise you’ll be looking for another one soon after you’ve learnt how to use it.
And get a good audio frequency generator as well, they are a must and go hand in hand.
Then once you reach Nelson Pass status, a distortion analyzer will be on the cards.

Cheers George

25 years ago when I was a digital design engineer, Tektronix and Lecroy were the big players in scopes. The techs in the lab preferred the Lecroys for scopes and the Teks for signal analyzers, as I recall. I have no idea if that still the case now all these years later, however. 

Again, nothing at all wrong with a good scope, but if I was doing this from your starting point, I would suggest you look at something a little more specialized, like this:

https://quantasylum.com/products/qa401-audio-analyzer

I have no financial interest, just that after being in the hobby for a while, I want more audio specific tools the scopes never gave me. In the old days a scope and audio analyzer and signal generator were 3 different pieces of gear, now I’d rather forego that all and have one.

You may also want to go look at Audio Science Review were they use several bits of kit to analyze audio gear, see what they do.  Oh, also, if you want to play with tubes, make sure you have gear that has probes for the high voltages. :)

Please suit yourself.


Best,


E

eyrepm

Just get this 100MHz dual trace Tektronix, it’s calibrated with probes, and it’s got a digital "frequency counter", and "volt meter" in it as well, you can download the instruction book on line. I had one for years, very reliable, wish I still had it, as I really don’t like the new digital Chinese produced crap.
The seller has 100% good feedback.
All you need is then is a audio frequency generator and you’ve got the works for a cheap test bench. That you won’t have to update.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tektronix-2236-100MHz-Oscilloscope-w-counter-timer-DMM-Calibrated-Two-Probes/153883356962?epid=2253449959&hash=item23d429af22:g:754AAOSwpnpeg4MD#viTabs_0

Cheers George

Here’s a link to a Tektronix CFG250 audio frequency generator, a great little unit I also used to have.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313.TR1.TRC0.A0.H0.XTektronix+CFG250.TRS0&_nkw=Tektronix+CFG250&_sacat=0
  
For $400 you've got the lot then DMM, Frequency Counter, 100MHz dual trace scope and a frequency generator.  
All quality Tektronix gear.
 
Cheers George