Re: spectrum analyzer
companies like agilent have a huge engineering/marketing base to support, and it is YOU that does the supporting by buying overpriced gear. Their $50K spectrum analyzer should probably be priced at $20K for the features it actually has. For that $20K "value", you would get better phase noise, bigger dynamic range, smaller frequency step size, and perhaps a little more rugged and repeatable design. For $5K you get the same circuitry, maybe 20 dB worse phae noise, 15 dB less dynamic range, a little more tendancy to drift between calibration.
If you do not need all that performance, go cheaper. If you have unlimited funds, buy the cadillac.