Hello people!
I picked up a box of NOS Tung-Sol 6AR6 tubes recently.
I built a home brew 6N1P/6L6 SEUL integrated amplifier earlier this year.
Since I could get the TS 6AR6 tubes at an inexpensive price, I decided to 'give 'em a shot'!
I made a pair of 6AR6-to-6L6 tube socket adapters, out of NOS 1960's Octal bakelite tube bases and NOS Amphenol Octal tube sockets.
With 300Vdc on the plates and screens, power dissipation was a hair over 20 watts.
NO red plating, but pretty close to maximum dissipation (21 watts) for that tube.
I plugged the amp into a 6.3V/4A bucking transformer, that effectively lowered the B+.
Now, power dissipation was around 16.5 watts.
With an late 80's Magnavox CDB460 CD player as sole source, and a pair of 95db E-V SP8C 8" full range drivers in ported home brew cabinets , I was ready to go.
Impressive.
That is a word that should not be spoken lightly.
But in this case, truly describes those early 1950's Tung-Sol 6AR6 tubes.
I have had Chinese-made 6L6GCR tubes and Russian-made 1978 6P3S-E tubes in that amplifier previously.
IMHO, the biggest improvement was in sound stage, as I felt that the foreign sourced tubes were a little too 2 dimensional for my liking?
The Tung-Sol tubes did NOT seem to favor any part of the frequency range, and overall gave a pretty good accounting....especially....since my speakers roll off rapidly below 55hz.
Who says you can't teach an old dog, new tricks?
Steve
I picked up a box of NOS Tung-Sol 6AR6 tubes recently.
I built a home brew 6N1P/6L6 SEUL integrated amplifier earlier this year.
Since I could get the TS 6AR6 tubes at an inexpensive price, I decided to 'give 'em a shot'!
I made a pair of 6AR6-to-6L6 tube socket adapters, out of NOS 1960's Octal bakelite tube bases and NOS Amphenol Octal tube sockets.
With 300Vdc on the plates and screens, power dissipation was a hair over 20 watts.
NO red plating, but pretty close to maximum dissipation (21 watts) for that tube.
I plugged the amp into a 6.3V/4A bucking transformer, that effectively lowered the B+.
Now, power dissipation was around 16.5 watts.
With an late 80's Magnavox CDB460 CD player as sole source, and a pair of 95db E-V SP8C 8" full range drivers in ported home brew cabinets , I was ready to go.
Impressive.
That is a word that should not be spoken lightly.
But in this case, truly describes those early 1950's Tung-Sol 6AR6 tubes.
I have had Chinese-made 6L6GCR tubes and Russian-made 1978 6P3S-E tubes in that amplifier previously.
IMHO, the biggest improvement was in sound stage, as I felt that the foreign sourced tubes were a little too 2 dimensional for my liking?
The Tung-Sol tubes did NOT seem to favor any part of the frequency range, and overall gave a pretty good accounting....especially....since my speakers roll off rapidly below 55hz.
Who says you can't teach an old dog, new tricks?
Steve
The 6AR6 tube has been discussed before, but I haven't heard that number in a while, several years maybe.
There is a military version made by Bendix and a few others, the 6384 that gets talked up on the guitar amp forums from time to time. It uses ultra pure materials and high temp glass so it can eat 30 watts and 600+ volts. It does work well, but has probably become hard to find by now. I was building guitar amps with them 20 years ago before I discovered TV sweep tubes.
There is a military version made by Bendix and a few others, the 6384 that gets talked up on the guitar amp forums from time to time. It uses ultra pure materials and high temp glass so it can eat 30 watts and 600+ volts. It does work well, but has probably become hard to find by now. I was building guitar amps with them 20 years ago before I discovered TV sweep tubes.
Seems there are TWO versions of Tung-Sol 6AR6 tubes.
The original round anode version, was developed by Bell Labs in the late 1940's as a smaller Western Union 350B tube, minus top cap.
Sometime around late 1951/early 1952, a square box anode version came out.
Cheaper to manufacture perhaps??
I've been listening to the square box version, as that was what was in the box of Tung-Sol 6AR6 tubes that I purchased.
Does anyone know....IF....there are obvious sonic differences, between the two versions?
Steve
The original round anode version, was developed by Bell Labs in the late 1940's as a smaller Western Union 350B tube, minus top cap.
Sometime around late 1951/early 1952, a square box anode version came out.
Cheaper to manufacture perhaps??
I've been listening to the square box version, as that was what was in the box of Tung-Sol 6AR6 tubes that I purchased.
Does anyone know....IF....there are obvious sonic differences, between the two versions?
Steve
Has anybody ever used the Tung Sol 26E6WG ????
http://www.mif.pg.gda.pl/homepages/frank/sheets/087/2/26E6WG.pdf
Using a push/pull circuit .... I have been trying to get some data on what the OPT's optimal impedance should be.
http://www.mif.pg.gda.pl/homepages/frank/sheets/087/2/26E6WG.pdf
Using a push/pull circuit .... I have been trying to get some data on what the OPT's optimal impedance should be.
I had a bunch of them but not sure if they were Tung Sol's or not. I had a set of them running in a test amp using a 6600 ohm P-P OPT. I used that OPT because I had several. It was basically a hacked 6L6 type amp. The amp worked very well and sounded nice.
I investigated that tube for possible use in an automotive tube amp with a DC to DC converter for heater and B+ power. Output was about 20 watts and I believe the B+ supply was about 250 to 275 volts. Observe the screen voltage rating these tubes will run away with B+ on the screen, but the plate rating can be bent a bit if the screen is kept at 150 volts. The 26E6WG is totally free of microphonic effects, unlike several 6L6GC's that I tried.
I never built the amp, and wound up selling the tubes when I had to pack up everything and move just over a year ago.
Heya Gearhound, Tubelab, 6L6PPP et al. -
I have an NOS pair of U.S. Navy Tung Sol Lamp Works 6AR6, date stamped on the boxes Accepted July 1949.
I'm interested in building my first tube amp to pair up with some Fostex full-range cabinets I built. Would these be a good pair as a starting point? Are there any build logs or schematics one of you might point me to? Or perhaps a kit that could be adapted to accommodate these tubes?
Thank you very much in advance.
I have an NOS pair of U.S. Navy Tung Sol Lamp Works 6AR6, date stamped on the boxes Accepted July 1949.
I'm interested in building my first tube amp to pair up with some Fostex full-range cabinets I built. Would these be a good pair as a starting point? Are there any build logs or schematics one of you might point me to? Or perhaps a kit that could be adapted to accommodate these tubes?
Thank you very much in advance.
I have a DIY PP amp using 6AR6 tubes at a class A bias point. I've used it for over 5 years now. At first I triode connected the 6AR6's and thought it was a fine sounding amp. Now I am using plate to grid local feedback. Since my amp has interstage trnasformers I have connected the local feedback just as is shown in Schade's paper. The tubes work well in both configurations and sound good. Good inner detail and soundstaging on my Martin Logan's. I don't have a huge room so even though I have less than 10 watts/chan I still have good volume.
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.