What is the E186F vacuum tube?

The E186F is a pentode vacuum tube designed for preamp applications. Special Quality frame-grid pentode..

What is a E186F substitute or equivalent?

Direct equivalents to the E186F 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 E186F?

Amplification factor μ ≈ 53, transconductance gm ≈ 16.5 mA/V, plate resistance rp ≈ 100.0 kΩ, max plate voltage 210 V, max plate dissipation 3 W, heater 6.3 V / 0.32 A.

Is the E186F still in production?

Production status varies by year and manufacturer. The current Amperatubes catalog classifies the E186F as Rare 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 E186F sound like?

Special Quality frame-grid pentode.. 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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E186F Pentode Vacuum Tube

Pentode6.3V / 0.32A9-pin Noval

SourcePhilips E186F datasheetReviewed2026-05-29StatusDataModelCalcModelunder reviewPDF

Small-signal pentode for low-noise voltage amplification

Datasheet ↗

E186F — Philips — pentode vacuum tube — (1962)

100.0kΩ

16.5mA/V

7.6pF

0.0pF

3.45pF

GAIN53%

POWER8%

DRIVE0%

LINEARITY74%

SPECIFICATIONS

Heater6.3 V · 0.32 A

Max Plate Voltage210 V

Pa max3 W

Gain Factor53

gm16.5 mA/V

rp100.0 kΩ

Inter-electrode capacitances

Cgk7.6 pF

Cgp0.03 pF

Cpk3.45 pF

Pinout9-pin Noval

Era1962

RarityRare

HEATER6.3V / 0.32A

MAX PLATE210V / 3W

BASEnoval

Source datasheets

2 manufacturer datasheets cross-checked for E186F

2 verified

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The E186F is a indirectly-heated pentode from Philips, introduced around 1962. It provides a gain factor (μ) of 53 with 100.0kΩ plate resistance. Commonly used in preamp applications. Special Quality frame-grid pentode.

APPLICATIONS

Voltage amplifier

Generic pentode preamp stage

HISTORY

Introduced1962ManufacturerPhilips

Late Production

E186F 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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