[time-nuts] AGC or manual attenuator

[xaos]

Hello everyone,

In the past there have been several posts about
amplifier input and AGC. As many have pointed out
this is always a bad idea since the AGC circuit
tends to add phase noise, etc.

So my question today is: Is this still true?

My old Panoramic spectrum analyzer (yeah, she's a beauty!)
has a very nice input attenuator which you select
manually.

Is this my only option? Digital pots don't usually go above
1 MHz, and if they did, are they an option?

George Hrysanthopoulos, N2FGX