Archive category

Tube Amplifiers

The original site used this category loosely, for posts where the tubes themselves were part of the story: amplifiers whose listings named their output tubes, a few sets of tubes, and company pages for makers known for tube equipment. It is a useful cross-section of what was inside American and Japanese amplifiers from the 1950s to the 1970s.

Most of the amplifiers here are push-pull designs using the common output types of the period: 6L6 and 6V6 in American public-address and hi-fi amplifiers, EL34 and EL84 in the better stereo units, 6550 in the most powerful. A few use something stranger, such as the 6146 transmitting tubes in the Altec 1530T.

Two of the bench guides will help you read the listings: the field guide to amplifier tubes, which explains the type numbers and what each tube can deliver, and push-pull or single-ended, which explains why most of these amplifiers have their output tubes in pairs.