Tube of the Month : The 6AY11

Hi!

This is the last of a miniseries of 4 consecutive posts about Compactron tubes. This months choice is the 6AY11.

The 6AY11 contains two triodes and two diodes in one bottle. Similar to the 6AG11 which was presented in July. But it has different specs.

The 6AY11 and the 6AG11 share the same pinout but the triodes in the 6AY11 have an even higher amplification factor of 100. This comes with a plate resistance of a bit over 50kOhm. Quite interesting if you are in need of a triode with very high gain and if you do not want to resort to the 12AX7. Both triode systems in the 6AY11 have the same parameters. See the General Electric data sheet for a complete set of technical details. There are so many gems hidden among the Compactron tubes which deserve more attention. This is probably one of them. Time to leave beaten paths and explore some alternatives. As always here the curves from the data sheet:

And curves from a tube sample:

I do not have many 6AY11 in stock, all of mine are Westinghouse branded but probably made by GE.

The tube from different angles:

Some close ups and more angles:

Since I do not have many of these I don't want to open one. The internal construction is anyways similar to that of the 6AG11 which I have shown in detail. But I would like to close this post by entertaining you with pictures of the 6AY11 in operation.

I hope you enjoyed this presentation of yet another Compactron beauty.

Best regards

Thomas