What is the 83 vacuum tube?

The 83 is a rectifier vacuum tube designed for rectifier applications. Mercury vapor blue glow. Constant 15V drop..

What is a 83 substitute or equivalent?

Direct equivalents to the 83 include VT-83. 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 83 still in production?

Production status varies by year and manufacturer. The current Amperatubes catalog classifies the 83 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 83 sound like?

Mercury vapor blue glow. Constant 15V drop.. 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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83 Rectifier Vacuum Tube

Rectifier5V / 3AUX-4

Sourcecap audit 2026-05-09Reviewed2026-05-29StatusDataModelCalcModelunder reviewPDF

Full-wave rectifier for vacuum tube power supply designs

Datasheet ↗

83 — RCA·Sylvania — rectifier vacuum tube — (1933)

50Ω

GAIN0%

POWER0%

DRIVE100%

LINEARITY75%

SPECIFICATIONS

Heater5 V · 3 A

Max Plate Voltage450 V

Pa max—

Gain Factor—

gm—

rp50 Ω

PinoutUX-4

Era1933

RaritySought-after

HEATER5V / 3A

MAX PLATE450V

BASEux4

Source datasheets

4 manufacturer datasheets cross-checked for 83

4 verified

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The 83 is a directly-heated rectifier from RCA·Sylvania, introduced around 1933. Commonly used in rectifier applications. Mercury vapor blue glow. Constant 15V drop.

APPLICATIONS

Power supply rectification

Generic rectifier rectifier stage

• Headphone amp

HISTORY

Introduced1933ManufacturerRCA·Sylvania

Pre-War

83 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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