From a Person that has started a very small business repairing,
modding, restoring equipment, local & eBay, has friends that design
for Peavey and do this for a living, and owns 7000 series equipment
plus a 5000 series boy and am a sound man too:
Determine what you are going to be doing in the audio arena first.
If you are repairing any of the modern (70's Golden Era Vintage and
beyond) transistorized amplifiers, any 100 MHz offering is good
choice. The only reason you'd need that bandwidth is to determine if
the transistors are oscillating above the audio band. Some will do
that at or above 80MHz! Yamaha M series amplifiers have rf
transistors that will easily get out that far!
If you are testing and designing amplifiers, the 5000 series or the
7000 series are a good choice so long as you use a 5A22 or 7A22
vertical amplifier. You are able to get a really fine focused trace
without the noise and without the use of external devices. Having
just got my first 5000 series scope Friday evening, they are a better
choice, not only for the SA but because as far as I could see on the
first look, no Tek hybrid ICs. The 76** and 5000 series all have
linear supplies, moot. One advantage for the 5000 series SA: tracking
generator integrated into the plugin. Use it with a 5A22 to sorta
"preprocess" the signal. Yes, one can use a AM502 to do the same
thing, but it is not as elegant a solution (I've some of those too).
If you will be aligning Tuners, the 5000 series won't do. You will
need something that will get out there. I've read that one needs to
have three times the bandwidth of the observable measurement. So for
FM, ya gotta get out there! The 7904A will do it. I have a 7704A and
do fine. You get more accurate bandwidth measurements (so long as the
plugins are up to snuff also.) If ya can deal with the complexity, I
aspire to have a 7854--7A22 plus digital tools and regular analog
acquisition!
If ya going to work on CD players (I don't), get at least 200 MHz and
maybe invest in a logic analyzer plugin.
Hey, I started in audio and rarely get to mess with it : ( I turned
Tekky and like both, so I have waaaaaaaayyyy to much. My bud, who is
beyond experienced and does this for a living in my states largest
repair facility and retailer (garsh, they pay for his apartment, car,
.... for three days a week!) only gets by with a 465B and one probe, a
function generator, two multimeters, dummy loads, and a soldering
iron! I know many here will say stop spouting about qualifications,
....; but hey, I admire his opinion as he's older, does this for a
living, and produced more audio circuits with his initials on some
killer amps for Peavey, products from Holmes, Hickok, ... that his
advice is sage. I've found out the hard way, that all of his
recommendations are spot on.
I just luv Tek gear!
*
Also, please note that many of the opinions of those that are here
concerning audio are negative, while many that don't ever answer posts
will come out of the woodwork to bash audio guys. Some don't even
understand the drain concept used in interconnects, sheesh. Some are
just profiteers. Watch yourself.
As many say around here, "That's real talk."
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