What is the E83F vacuum tube?

The E83F is a pentode vacuum tube designed for preamp applications. Frame-grid. Low noise..

What is a E83F substitute or equivalent?

Direct equivalents to the E83F include 6689. 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 E83F?

Amplification factor μ ≈ 38, transconductance gm ≈ 9 mA/V, plate resistance rp ≈ 500.0 kΩ, max plate voltage 210 V, max plate dissipation 2.1 W, heater 6.3 V / 0.3 A.

Is the E83F still in production?

Production status varies by year and manufacturer. The current Amperatubes catalog classifies the E83F 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 E83F sound like?

Frame-grid. Low noise.. 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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E83F Pentode Vacuum Tube

Pentode6.3V / 0.3A9-pin Noval

SourcePhilips E83F/6689 datasheetReviewed2026-05-29StatusDataModelCalcModelunder reviewPDF

Small-signal pentode for low-noise voltage amplification

Datasheet ↗

E83F — Philips·Telefunken — pentode vacuum tube — (1960)

500.0kΩ

9.0mA/V

8.0pF

0.0pF

3.50pF

GAIN38%

POWER5%

DRIVE0%

LINEARITY81%

SPECIFICATIONS

Heater6.3 V · 0.3 A

Max Plate Voltage210 V

Pa max2.1 W

Gain Factor38

gm9 mA/V

rp500.0 kΩ

Inter-electrode capacitances

Cgk8 pF

Cgp0.015 pF

Cpk3.5 pF

Pinout9-pin Noval

Era1960

RarityRare

HEATER6.3V / 0.3A

MAX PLATE210V / 2.1W

BASEnoval

Source datasheets

3 manufacturer datasheets cross-checked for E83F

3 verified

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The E83F is a indirectly-heated pentode from Philips·Telefunken, introduced around 1960. It provides a gain factor (μ) of 38 with 500.0kΩ plate resistance. Commonly used in preamp applications. Frame-grid. Low noise.

APPLICATIONS

Voltage amplifier

Generic pentode preamp stage

HISTORY

Introduced1960ManufacturerPhilips·Telefunken

Late Production

E83F 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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