What is the 1614 vacuum tube?

The 1614 is a tetrode vacuum tube designed for power (pp) applications. Cherry-picked metal 6L6. McIntosh MC-30..

What is a 1614 substitute or equivalent?

Direct equivalents to the 1614 include 6L6 (selected). These share the same pinout and operating envelope, so they can usually be swapped without circuit changes — though batch-to-batch variations between manufacturers (NOS vs current production) may shift the sonic character noticeably.

What are the key specifications of the 1614?

Transconductance gm ≈ 6.05 mA/V, max plate voltage 550 V, max plate dissipation 25 W, heater 6.3 V / 0.9 A.

Is the 1614 still in production?

Production status varies by year and manufacturer. The current Amperatubes catalog classifies the 1614 as Sought-after availability. NOS (new-old-stock) examples from RCA, Mullard, Tung-Sol, GE, Sylvania and Telefunken trade among collectors; modern production where it exists comes mostly from JJ Electronic, Electro-Harmonix, Tung-Sol (New Sensor), Genalex, and a handful of small-batch makers.

What does the 1614 sound like?

Cherry-picked metal 6L6. McIntosh MC-30.. Sonic character also depends heavily on the circuit operating point, the surrounding tubes in the stage, and the output transformer when present — use the interactive loadline calculator on this page to explore the trade-offs.

By Jean-Michel Falligan Devergne · Reviewed May 29, 2026

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1614 Tetrode Vacuum Tube

Tetrode6.3V / 0.9AOctal

SourceRCA·GEReviewed2026-05-29StatusDataModelCalcModelunder reviewPDF

Beam power tetrode rated at 25W for high-power output stages

Datasheet ↗

1614 — RCA·GE — tetrode vacuum tube — (1942)

6.0mA/V

10.0pF

0.4pF

12.00pF

GAIN0%

POWER63%

DRIVE50%

LINEARITY75%

SPECIFICATIONS

Heater6.3 V · 0.9 A

Max Plate Voltage550 V

Pa max25 W

Gain Factor—

gm6.05 mA/V

rp—

Inter-electrode capacitances

Cgk10 pF

Cgp0.4 pF

Cpk12 pF

PinoutOctal

Era1942

RaritySought-after

HEATER6.3V / 0.9A

MAX PLATE550V / 25W

BASEoctal

Source datasheets

1 manufacturer datasheets cross-checked for 1614

1 verified

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The 1614 is a indirectly-heated beam tetrode from RCA·GE, introduced around 1942. Commonly used in power (pp) applications. Cherry-picked metal 6L6. McIntosh MC-30.

APPLICATIONS

High-power output

Generic tetrode power (pp) stage

HISTORY

Introduced1942ManufacturerRCA·GE

Pre-War

1614 Datasheet

Local mirror · PDF

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METRIX TESTER

Test this tube on a Metrix

SPICE model not yet available. Loadline calculator requires calibrated Koren parameters.

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