Triode Triode A triode is an electronic amplifying vacuum tube (or "thermionic valve" in British English) consisting of three electrodes inside an evacuated glass envelope: a heated filament or cathode, a grid, and a plate (anode). Developed from Lee De Forest's 1906 Audion, a partial vacuum tube that added a grid electrode to the thermionic diode (Fleming valve), the triode was the first practical electronic amplifier and the ancestor of other types of vacuum tubes such as the tetrode and pentode. Its invention founded the electronics age, making possible amplified radio technology and long-distance telephony. Triodes were widely used in consumer
Virtual Valve Amplifier (amplifier class A), to make only one side conduct at a time (class B), or intermediate (class AB). Class A uses more power for the same output (i.e., is less efficient), can produce less output power from the same devices, and produces lower distortion, than classes AB and B. These devices generally consisted of a 12AU7 medium-mu triode driving a single 6L6GC beam power pentode audio output valve or similar. Its effects are distinctive due to convolution of the non-linearity of the triode interacting with those of the pentode, with both devices operating in class-A mode. The 6L6GC is similar