What is the 83V vacuum tube?

The 83V is a rectifier vacuum tube designed for rectifier applications. Vacuum version of 83. Mercury-free safety..

What is a 83V substitute or equivalent?

Direct equivalents to the 83V include 5V4G. 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 83V still in production?

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

Vacuum version of 83. Mercury-free safety.. 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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83V Rectifier Vacuum Tube

Rectifier5V / 2AUX-4

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

Full-wave rectifier for vacuum tube power supply designs

Datasheet ↗

83V — Sylvania·RCA — rectifier vacuum tube — (1938)

65Ω

GAIN0%

POWER0%

DRIVE100%

LINEARITY75%

SPECIFICATIONS

Heater5 V · 2 A

Max Plate Voltage375 V

Pa max—

Gain Factor—

gm—

rp65 Ω

PinoutUX-4

Era1938

RarityModerate

HEATER5V / 2A

MAX PLATE375V

BASEux4

Source datasheets

4 manufacturer datasheets cross-checked for 83V

4 verified

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The 83V is a directly-heated rectifier from Sylvania·RCA, introduced around 1938. Commonly used in rectifier applications. Vacuum version of 83. Mercury-free safety.

APPLICATIONS

Power supply rectification

Generic rectifier rectifier stage

• Headphone amp

HISTORY

Introduced1938ManufacturerSylvania·RCA

Pre-War

83V 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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