I have a chance to pick up a beat up RCA 94T Canadian radio.
The original tube lineup was 6A8 - 6B8 - 6K6, 5Y3 rectifier.
Somebody switched the grill cloth, lost the brass grill trim bars and stole the 6K6 and the 5Y3.

My plan is to get it playing with a new 6K6 and a solid state diode for the rectifier. The output will be about 1 watt and it will be a weak performer. But it will clean up nice, wood tombstone radio, and will play one local AM station and internet radio with an input on the volume pot.

If I add a gain stage, it will play louder, correct? I expect I would put a newer 5 watt speaker in it and save the original. Suppose I put a 6V6 output tube in place of the 6K6? That should raise the volume. In the empty rectifier socket, I would like to try a gain stage ahead of the power tube. What would be a good octal tube to use? Preferably it will operate on the 5 volts filament supply, or I will need to add a 6 volt power supply for the added heater.

:I have a chance to pick up a beat up RCA 94T Canadian radio.
:The original tube lineup was 6A8 - 6B8 - 6K6, 5Y3 rectifier.
:Somebody switched the grill cloth, lost the brass grill trim bars and stole the 6K6 and the 5Y3.
:
:My plan is to get it playing with a new 6K6 and a solid state diode for the rectifier. The output will be about 1 watt and it will be a weak performer. But it will clean up nice, wood tombstone radio, and will play one local AM station and internet radio with an input on the volume pot.
:
:If I add a gain stage, it will play louder, correct? I expect I would put a newer 5 watt speaker in it and save the original. Suppose I put a 6V6 output tube in place of the 6K6? That should raise the volume. In the empty rectifier socket, I would like to try a gain stage ahead of the power tube. What would be a good octal tube to use? Preferably it will operate on the 5 volts filament supply, or I will need to add a 6 volt power supply for the added heater.
:
I'll answer my own questions. The 6V6 draws slightly more filament current which might overheat the old transformer. I should stick with the 6K6 then.

A 6SQ7 could be used to drive the power tube, but will the sound be appreciably louder?

I'm thinking that the original RF section of the set probably had relatively low sensitivity, so the audio output stage was matched to the RF section's performance characteristics- it probably produced perfectly adequate speaker volume for the very strong stations that it was capable of pulling in. So, adding an audio amp stage wouldn't buy you much of an improvement, radio-reception-wise. And, if you want to use an external audio source, you can crank up the source's output drive level to whatever you want to get decent output from the 6K6 tube, obviating the need for another audio amp stage.

:I'm thinking that the original RF section of the set probably had relatively low sensitivity, so the audio output stage was matched to the RF section's performance characteristics- it probably produced perfectly adequate speaker volume for the very strong stations that it was capable of pulling in. So, adding an audio amp stage wouldn't buy you much of an improvement, radio-reception-wise. And, if you want to use an external audio source, you can crank up the source's output drive level to whatever you want to get decent output from the 6K6 tube, obviating the need for another audio amp stage.
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Thanks, CV. It will never be a silk purse, you're right about that.