This valve continues the 6L6 family, and appears to have a glass disc construction fitted to an octal base, rather than the older style pinch. It is a reasonably powerful audio beam tetrode and was used, primarily, for audio amplifiers.

The valve is electrically equivalent to the 6L6 but is of a squat tubular construction. The cross box anode obscures the other electrodes but is obviously designed for good heat dissipation.

The 5881 was manufactured in the USA by GE, RCA, Sylvania and Westinghouse, our exhibit will have rebranded to Pinnacle.

The wide glass tube envelope is 33 mm in diameter and, excluding the IO base pins, is 72 mm tall. The parameters given are for the basic 6L6 as specific operating conditions for the 5881 are yet to be located.

 
Pin Connections

IO	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
	m	h	a	g2	g1	nc	h	k

 
Absolute Maximum Operating Conditions

Beam Tetrode	Vh	Ah	Va	Vs	Vg	mAa	mAs	ra	gm	Pout	D
	6.3	0.9	350	250	-18	54	2.5	33K	5.2	11W	15%

Thanks to Frank Philipse for supplying the above datasheet

This exhibit was last updated on 12 June 2007 {find valves by name}