on some of the latest models rigol put in a few hardware features that are only on the higher bandwidth versions, but the lower bandwidth are still hackable to higher bandwidth.
It's all about extracting as much as they can from each customer, but I'm happy they're willing to allow "willing to do hacking stuff" to be a market segmenter for them.
Unfortunately, I think the GP post question of a device a hobbyist can't exceed has a negative answer. I really like my DHO924S and there are a huge number of tasks where it is way more than enough (and it's very portable too). But around me there are kinds of computer and video and radio devices that run much higher than 250MHz, and going to 350 or 500MHz doesn't really change that fact. Scope prices go pretty exponential after a couple hundred MHz. ... so if you want to be snooping on a SFP+s sfi signal, USB3 some hdmi thing or whatever via a scope anything but a lucky surplus find is unlikely to be inside a hobby budget.
Yet I think it's totally reasonable for a hobbyist to want to work on the high speed digital signals that surround them in their own home.
(hobby solution to fast digital busses is to make custom boards with inexpensive FPGAs I guess, rather than using a 5+-figure oscilloscope)
In practice, you can get very far with high speed interfaces while never using a high-speed scope. I've spent years professionally doing HDMI, DisplayPort and LVDS interfaces with FPGAs and never had the need for scope shots. (Admittedly, a colleague did use it, but that was always for certification related measurements which is a non-issue for hobbyists.)
Part of the reason is that the specifications for these fast interfaces are created for robustness. They can sustain a lot of PCB design abuse and still work fine in practice even when out of spec.
It's all about extracting as much as they can from each customer, but I'm happy they're willing to allow "willing to do hacking stuff" to be a market segmenter for them.
Unfortunately, I think the GP post question of a device a hobbyist can't exceed has a negative answer. I really like my DHO924S and there are a huge number of tasks where it is way more than enough (and it's very portable too). But around me there are kinds of computer and video and radio devices that run much higher than 250MHz, and going to 350 or 500MHz doesn't really change that fact. Scope prices go pretty exponential after a couple hundred MHz. ... so if you want to be snooping on a SFP+s sfi signal, USB3 some hdmi thing or whatever via a scope anything but a lucky surplus find is unlikely to be inside a hobby budget.
Yet I think it's totally reasonable for a hobbyist to want to work on the high speed digital signals that surround them in their own home.
(hobby solution to fast digital busses is to make custom boards with inexpensive FPGAs I guess, rather than using a 5+-figure oscilloscope)