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In the thread GM70 vs. 6C33C two year back I have written that the only tube that I would like to trey in Milq besides 6C33C would be YO-186.

I am not sure that it might be a right direction or even interesting direction but I picked yesterday a party of YO-186 tubes. The YO-186 is incredibly rare Russian tube and has a mysterious reputation in there. It is so uncommon that it has a unicorn status and trios few who use pray to YO-186 as it is something out of this world. I do not know if there is any rational in it. Russians might be right and the YO-186 might be a unique sounding tube, it might be in a pair with western equivalents or it might be worst then western alternatives. I took the YO-186 just to address its unicorn status and to see if any merit exists behind the YO-186 cult sonic reputation. I have very limited expectation as it looks Russians made YO-186 as an alternative to Western tubes. Generally those alternative tubes were not as good as Western tubes. The Russians own tubes development was much more interesting where they did not try to imitate any and created own things from scratch… talking about the 6E5P, 6C33C, 1P24B…

Anyhow, the YO-186 was a Russian made hybrid between AD1, AD101 and 45 tubes. The YO-186 is like AD1 has 4V and 1A filament. Cares 250V on plate, can do higher of necessary. Default plate current 60mA, bios of minus 40V, 15W anode dissipation. It has lover gain then AD1 – 4 vs. 6 and has slightly higher plate impedance - 1200R,  that brings it in the camp of 45 tubes. The YO-186 started production in mid of 30s and were made to the beginning of 60s. The primary use of them was reportedly in movie theater amplifiers even though I have no idea what the purpose was to have 1.5W tube in there.

If anyone heard any amp with this tube then let me know. I know that there is a South Korean company that makes rare amps with YO-186 but I do not know anyone who has it.

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