What is the 6CD6GA vacuum tube?

The 6CD6GA is a tetrode vacuum tube designed for power applications. High-current sweep..

What is a 6CD6GA substitute or equivalent?

Direct equivalents to the 6CD6GA 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 6CD6GA?

Amplification factor μ ≈ 4, transconductance gm ≈ 7.7 mA/V, plate resistance rp ≈ 7.2 kΩ, max plate voltage 700 V, max plate dissipation 20 W, heater 6.3 V / 2.5 A.

Is the 6CD6GA still in production?

Production status varies by year and manufacturer. The current Amperatubes catalog classifies the 6CD6GA 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 6CD6GA sound like?

High-current sweep.. 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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6CD6GA Tetrode Vacuum Tube

Tetrode6.3V / 2.5AOctalSPICE

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

Beam power tetrode rated at 20W for high-power output stages

Datasheet ↗SPICE

6CD6GA — RCA — tetrode vacuum tube — (1955)

7.2kΩ

7.7mA/V

22.0pF

1.1pF

8.50pF

GAIN4%

POWER50%

DRIVE93%

LINEARITY95%

SPECIFICATIONS

Heater6.3 V · 2.5 A

Max Plate Voltage700 V

Pa max20 W

Gain Factor4

gm7.7 mA/V

rp7.2 kΩ

Inter-electrode capacitances

Cgk22 pF

Cgp1.1 pF

Cpk8.5 pF

PinoutOctal

Era1955

RarityCommon

HEATER6.3V / 2.5A

MAX PLATE700V / 20W

BASEoctal

Source datasheets

3 manufacturer datasheets cross-checked for 6CD6GA

3 verified

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The 6CD6GA is a indirectly-heated beam tetrode from RCA, introduced around 1955. It provides a gain factor (μ) of 4 with 7200Ω plate resistance. Commonly used in power applications. High-current sweep.

APPLICATIONS

High-power output

Generic tetrode power stage

HISTORY

Introduced1955ManufacturerRCA

Golden Age

6CD6GA Datasheet

Local mirror · PDF

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METRIX TESTER

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