Size of 5Y3 tubes?

[toufu]

I am building the Aikido Janus power supply using the 5Y3 tube. My space is limited and was wondering if there 5Y3 tubes that are the height of 6SN7 or 12SN7 tubes. Thanks.

[korey]

Sure there are! The typical 5Y3GT tube is the height of the 6V6GT tubes. The coke bottle 5Y3 tube is an older tube, fatter & taller and quite hard to find.

[toufu]

Cool, I have a new production Sovtek 5Y3GT that's really tall. I just ordered a couple of NOS GE and Sylvania 5Y3's, so we will see.

By the way, any reason why 5Y3's are so cheap but 5AR4's are expensive?

[toufu]

Thanks for the response, I got my GE and Sylvania 5Y3's and they are much smaller than my Sovtek 5Y3GT.

How big of a difference can a rect. tube make on the sonic? This is for my Aikido preamp.

[kevinkr]

Originally Posted by toufu

Thanks for the response, I got my GE and Sylvania 5Y3's and they are much smaller than my Sovtek 5Y3GT.

How big of a difference can a rect. tube make on the sonic? This is for my Aikido preamp.

In a properly designed circuit very little to no difference, the Aikido is supposedly designed to have good power supply immunity. Hopefully they all sound the same, but if they don't you need to either figure out why and fix the problem or as some audiophiles do just accept it and choose what you think is the best sounding rectifier.

[bob91343]

After 65 years of listening to, building, buying, and measuring amplifiers, I have yet to discover a difference when changing a rectifier. Almost like saying 'will my car run better if I charge the gasoline on VISA, or MasterCard?'

[jjman]

Sovtek 5y3 is not a 5y3.

5Y3 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[kevinkr]

Originally Posted by jjman

Sovtek 5y3 is not a 5y3.

5Y3 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There were certain admittedly rare 5Y3 variants like the WGT which were usually indirectly heated, and did not entirely adhere to the original specifications of the 5Y3G either, based on my experience I suspect the Sovtek probably performs very similarly to the WGT type.

Your point wrt to the rectifier forward drop is valid though, and if using a vintage transformer designed for 110 - 117V power you can end up with voltages 20 - 30V higher than expected.

One could also make the argument that the 6L6GC is not a true 6L6 because it differs in some significant parameters like plate voltage rating and dissipation from the original.