What is the 6JN6 vacuum tube?

The 6JN6 is a tetrode vacuum tube designed for power applications. Compactron sweep..

What is a 6JN6 substitute or equivalent?

Direct equivalents to the 6JN6 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 6JN6?

Amplification factor μ ≈ 4, transconductance gm ≈ 7.3 mA/V, plate resistance rp ≈ 18.0 kΩ, max plate voltage 770 V, max plate dissipation 17.5 W, heater 6.3 V / 1.2 A.

Is the 6JN6 still in production?

Production status varies by year and manufacturer. The current Amperatubes catalog classifies the 6JN6 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 6JN6 sound like?

Compactron 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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6JN6 Tetrode Vacuum Tube

Tetrode6.3V / 1.2A12-pin CompactronSPICE

Sourcevacuumtubesinc 6JN6 beam powerReviewed2026-05-29StatusDataModelCalcModelKoren pentodePDF

Beam power tetrode rated at 17.5W for high-power output stages

Datasheet ↗SPICE

6JN6 — RCA — tetrode vacuum tube — (1962)

18.0kΩ

7.3mA/V

16.0pF

0.3pF

7.00pF

GAIN4%

POWER44%

DRIVE82%

LINEARITY95%

SPECIFICATIONS

Heater6.3 V · 1.2 A

Max Plate Voltage770 V

Pa max17.5 W

Gain Factor4

gm7.3 mA/V

rp18.0 kΩ

Inter-electrode capacitances

Cgk16 pF

Cgp0.34 pF

Cpk7 pF

Pinout12-pin Compactron

Era1962

RarityCommon

HEATER6.3V / 1.2A

MAX PLATE770V / 17.5W

BASEcompactron-12

Source datasheets

2 manufacturer datasheets cross-checked for 6JN6

2 verified

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The 6JN6 is a indirectly-heated beam tetrode from RCA, introduced around 1962. It provides a gain factor (μ) of 4 with 18.0kΩ plate resistance. Commonly used in power applications. Compactron sweep.

APPLICATIONS

High-power output

Generic tetrode power stage

HISTORY

Introduced1962ManufacturerRCA

Late Production

6JN6 Datasheet

Local mirror · PDF

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METRIX TESTER

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