What is the CV515 vacuum tube?

The CV515 is a tetrode vacuum tube designed for power applications. Military / CV designation in the 6Y6 family..

What is a CV515 substitute or equivalent?

Direct equivalents to the CV515 include 6Y6G. 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 CV515?

Transconductance gm ≈ 7.1 mA/V, max plate voltage 200 V, max plate dissipation 12.5 W, heater 6.3 V / 0.45 A.

Is the CV515 still in production?

Production status varies by year and manufacturer. The current Amperatubes catalog classifies the CV515 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 CV515 sound like?

Military / CV designation in the 6Y6 family.. 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 9, 2026

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CV515 Tetrode Vacuum Tube

Tetrode6.3V / 0.45AOctalSPICE

Sourceqsl.net 6Y6 (= CV515, NOT 6V6) · wording corrected: 6Y6 family, not 6V6Reviewed2026-05-09StatusDataModelCalcModelKoren pentodePDF

Beam power tetrode rated at 12.5W for high-power output stages

Datasheet ↗SPICE

CV515 — GEC — tetrode vacuum tube — (1942)

7.1mA/V

6.0pF

0.0pF

7.00pF

GAIN0%

POWER31%

DRIVE50%

LINEARITY75%

SPECIFICATIONS

Heater6.3 V · 0.45 A

Max Plate Voltage200 V

Pa max12.5 W

Gain Factor—

gm7.1 mA/V

rp—

Inter-electrode capacitances

Cgk6 pF

Cgp0.005 pF

Cpk7 pF

PinoutOctal

Era1942

RarityModerate

HEATER6.3V / 0.45A

MAX PLATE200V / 12.5W

BASEoctal

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The CV515 is a indirectly-heated beam tetrode from GEC, introduced around 1942. Commonly used in power applications. Military / CV designation in the 6Y6 family.

HISTORY

Introduced1942ManufacturerGEC

Pre-War

CV515 Datasheet

Local mirror · PDF

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