What is the 80 vacuum tube?

The 80 is a rectifier vacuum tube designed for rectifier applications. Classic pre-octal rectifier. Gentle sag..

What is a 80 substitute or equivalent?

Direct equivalents to the 80 include VT-80, 5Y3GT. 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.

Is the 80 still in production?

Production status varies by year and manufacturer. The current Amperatubes catalog classifies the 80 as Moderate 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 80 sound like?

Classic pre-octal rectifier. Gentle sag.. 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

←80

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80 Rectifier Vacuum Tube

Rectifier5V / 2AUX-4

SourceRCA·SylvaniaReviewed2026-05-29StatusDataModelCalcModelunder reviewPDF

Full-wave rectifier for vacuum tube power supply designs

Datasheet ↗

80 — RCA·Sylvania — rectifier vacuum tube — (1927)

10Ω

4.0pF

6.0pF

3.50pF

GAIN0%

POWER0%

DRIVE100%

LINEARITY75%

SPECIFICATIONS

Heater5 V · 2 A

Max Plate Voltage350 V

Pa max—

Gain Factor—

gm—

rp10 Ω

Inter-electrode capacitances

Cgk4 pF

Cgp6 pF

Cpk3.5 pF

PinoutUX-4

Era1927

RarityModerate

HEATER5V / 2A

MAX PLATE350V

BASEux4

Source datasheets

4 manufacturer datasheets cross-checked for 80

4 verified

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The 80 is a directly-heated rectifier from RCA·Sylvania, introduced around 1927. Commonly used in rectifier applications. Classic pre-octal rectifier. Gentle sag.

APPLICATIONS

Power supply rectification

Generic rectifier rectifier stage

• Headphone amp

HISTORY

Introduced1927ManufacturerRCA·Sylvania

Pre-War

80 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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