What is the VT-168A vacuum tube?

The VT-168A is a tetrode vacuum tube designed for power applications. Military designation for 6Y6G / beam power output family..

What is a VT-168A substitute or equivalent?

Direct equivalents to the VT-168A 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 VT-168A?

Amplification factor μ ≈ 8, transconductance gm ≈ 6 mA/V, max plate voltage 750 V, max plate dissipation 30 W, heater 6.3 V / 0.45 A.

Is the VT-168A still in production?

Production status varies by year and manufacturer. The current Amperatubes catalog classifies the VT-168A 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 VT-168A sound like?

Military designation for 6Y6G / beam power output 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 29, 2026

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VT-168A Tetrode Vacuum Tube

Tetrode6.3V / 0.45AMedium 7-Pin Micanol (1625)SPICE

Sourcevintelec 6Y6G (= VT-168A) · wording corrected: 6Y6G family, not 6V6Reviewed2026-05-29StatusDataModelCalcModelKoren pentodePDF

Beam power tetrode rated at 30W for high-power output stages

Datasheet ↗SPICE

VT-168A — RCA — tetrode vacuum tube — (1942)

6.0mA/V

11.0pF

0.2pF

7.00pF

GAIN8%

POWER75%

DRIVE50%

LINEARITY95%

SPECIFICATIONS

Heater6.3 V · 0.45 A

Max Plate Voltage750 V

Pa max30 W

Gain Factor8

gm6 mA/V

rp—

Inter-electrode capacitances

Cgk11 pF

Cgp0.2 pF

Cpk7 pF

PinoutMedium 7-Pin Micanol (1625)

Era1942

RarityModerate

HEATER6.3V / 0.45A

MAX PLATE750V / 30W

BASEminiature-7

Source datasheets

2 manufacturer datasheets cross-checked for VT-168A

2 verified

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The VT-168A is a indirectly-heated beam tetrode from RCA, introduced around 1942. Commonly used in power applications. Military designation for 6Y6G / beam power output family.

APPLICATIONS

High-power output

Generic tetrode power stage

• PA/public address

HISTORY

Introduced1942ManufacturerRCA

Pre-War

VT-168A Datasheet

Local mirror · PDF

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METRIX TESTER

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