6ey6...6n3c...marconi 6v6

[TubeGeek]

I bought a few tubes today and am wondering what you know about them.

The first set are sylvania 6ey6.

The second set are some kind of russian tube...a 6n3c.  I couldn't find a datasheet for these.

The last quad set are marconi 6v6.  These look like nice 6v6's, any idea who manufactured these?

I'm thinking the sylvania's and russian tubes are variants of 6v6???

[RicharD]

The Marconi 6V6's have the RCA stop sign but I also notice hencho en Japan.  RCA Victor had a big Japaneses thang in the 60's.  Take that with a grain of salt.  I bet they're kick ass tubes.

The 6EY6 is a 2.5W vertical deflection tube.  At 400V with a 4k transformer you might get a watt out at an expense of 50ish mA single ended.  

The 6N3C is "supposed" to be a 6L6 equivalent.  That's from the Googles, not my personal experience.

[TubeGeek]

Yeah i read that the russian tubes are 6l6 or el34 equivalents.  Seems odd to me, they look and feel and sound like 6v6's to me.

The marconi tubes sound incredible in my 5f2a.  So do the 6ey6's, very nice tone.

The russian tubes also sound good to my ears.

I love a good tube score!

[tubeswell]

'6P3S' are a 20W tube - kind of 6L6G equivalent, but not as robust as a '6P3Se' in my (humble) experience (which is more of a 5881, or some say even a 6L6GC, 'equivalent'). I have tried both types as a sub for 5881/6L6GB, and prefer the 'e' type as it seems to handle 'higher' (~440V) voltages a lot better. I tried running some 6P3S at 445V and they didn't last very long.

Info on both the 6P3S and 6P3Se types here:

http://www.rutubes.com/index.php?productID=176

and here:

http://timelesson.blogspot.com/2010/02/6p3-beam-power-tetrode.html

(Andy here recommends running the 6P3S between 250-400V)

and more commentary here (from km6xz):

http://music-electronics-forum.com/t24265-post208033/#poststop

(interesting that he thinks the 6P3S would make a good sub for a 6V6 - albeit with higher heater current draw and maybe slightly lowered Plate Z)

and a straw poll I did (with more commentary from others) here:

http://www.18watt.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=23565

(The under 400V recommendation for the 6P3S is repeated in some of the comments here)

[TubeGeek]

Turns out the tubes I have are not the 6n3c...that's just what the box said.  After reading your post and thinking for a minute I thought I better double check the tubes cause they did not look like the pics in the links.

Sure enough they are 6n6c's (6p6s).  They seem to have a bad reputation from what I have briefly read online.

"The 6P6S is a clone of the 1940's era Sylvania 6V6GT's that were supplied to the USSR by the USA Via Lend-Lease during WWII. They sound great, but don't like being pushed far beyond their max operating limits."

[tubeswell]

6P6S are fine as subs for 6V6GTs - they are virtually identical.

[HotBluePlates]

I believe I have used a bunch of those "6P6S" tubes marked with other labels (and they appear mismarked purposely to deceive). I haven't had any failures, and they sound quite good to me.

I feel better not putting them in an amp with very high plate/screen voltages. They work/sound just fine in my tweed-copy amps.

[darryl]

I've used the 6P6S quite successfully with plate voltage around 300. The details are in this long and meandering thread: http://www.guitargear.net.au/discussion/index.php?topic=26388.0

[TubeGeek]

Nice thread and really nice amps!  I like your use of terminal strips.