What is the 6AH6 vacuum tube?

The 6AH6 is a pentode vacuum tube designed for rf / preamp applications. High-Gm sharp pentode..

What is a 6AH6 substitute or equivalent?

Direct equivalents to the 6AH6 include None. 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 6AH6?

Amplification factor μ ≈ 40, transconductance gm ≈ 9 mA/V, plate resistance rp ≈ 500.0 kΩ, max plate voltage 300 V, max plate dissipation 3.2 W, heater 6.3 V / 0.45 A.

Is the 6AH6 still in production?

Production status varies by year and manufacturer. The current Amperatubes catalog classifies the 6AH6 as Common 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 6AH6 sound like?

High-Gm sharp pentode.. 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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6AH6 Pentode Vacuum Tube

Pentode6.3V / 0.45A7-pin MiniatureSPICE

Sourceaudit-us_a (CLEAN — matches canonical datasheet)Reviewed2026-05-29StatusDataModelCalcModelKoren pentodePDF

Small-signal pentode for low-noise voltage amplification

Datasheet ↗SPICE

6AH6 — RCA — pentode vacuum tube — (1952)

500.0kΩ

9.0mA/V

10.0pF

0.0pF

3.60pF

GAIN40%

POWER8%

DRIVE0%

LINEARITY80%

SPECIFICATIONS

Heater6.3 V · 0.45 A

Max Plate Voltage300 V

Pa max3.2 W

Gain Factor40

gm9 mA/V

rp500.0 kΩ

Inter-electrode capacitances

Cgk10 pF

Cgp0.02 pF

Cpk3.6 pF

Pinout7-pin Miniature

Era1952

RarityCommon

HEATER6.3V / 0.45A

MAX PLATE300V / 3.2W

BASEminiature-7

Source datasheets

2 manufacturer datasheets cross-checked for 6AH6

2 verified

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The 6AH6 is a indirectly-heated pentode from RCA, introduced around 1952. It provides a gain factor (μ) of 40 with 500.0kΩ plate resistance. Commonly used in rf / preamp applications. High-Gm sharp pentode.

APPLICATIONS

Voltage amplifier

Generic pentode rf / preamp stage

HISTORY

Introduced1952ManufacturerRCA

Golden Age

6AH6 Datasheet

Local mirror · PDF

↗

METRIX TESTER

Test this tube on a Metrix

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