Apart from very specialist audio amplifiers?
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8High power RF amplifiers. – Chu Mar 11 '16 at 13:42
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5... including microwave ovens. – Dave Tweed Mar 11 '16 at 13:43
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Retrocomputers. – Mar 11 '16 at 13:46
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satellites ! and some high power radio emitters – greg Mar 11 '16 at 13:52
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1Industrial RF heating, dielectric heating, HF induction heating. – Marko Buršič Mar 11 '16 at 14:03
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@DaveTweed microwave ovens use magnetrons ? Or did you meant industrial grade ones ? – MaximGi Mar 11 '16 at 14:17
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4@MaximGi: They all use magnetrons. – Dave Tweed Mar 11 '16 at 14:24
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@DaveTweed Yes, we agree on this point. But what about vacuum tubes ? – MaximGi Mar 11 '16 at 14:31
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6@MaximGi: Magnetrons *are* vacuum tubes. – Dave Tweed Mar 11 '16 at 14:32
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7Most guitar amplifiers made by Marshall, Fender, etc still use tubes. For Rock, Heavy Metal, Blues, you need a tube amplifier to get the right sound. Jimmy Hendrix just would not sound the same through a transistor amp. In the UK they are called "valves". – Steve G Mar 11 '16 at 14:33
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@DaveTweed Oh. My bad. – MaximGi Mar 11 '16 at 14:34
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2@SteveG, it's "Jimi". – Mar 11 '16 at 16:10
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@jdv oops, so it is. – Steve G Mar 11 '16 at 16:48
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1429,000+ posts about current vaccuum tube use at: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/tubes-valves/ – Dronz Mar 11 '16 at 23:17
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@Dronz I am going to ask a supplementary question about this in another thread – Dirk Bruere Mar 12 '16 at 12:39
3 Answers
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Maybe still some EMP-resistant radio front ends for military purposes. Magnetrons, TWTs and Klystrons for RF, including microwave ovens and industrial microwave sources.
Also ignitrons and hydrogen thyratrons, and, of course photomultipliers are widely used.
As Dave Tweed says below, solar-blind flame detectors (such as UVtron) are a current application.
Spehro Pefhany
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2+1 for photomultipliers. Also [UV flame detectors](http://www.hamamatsu.com/jp/en/3007.html). – Dave Tweed Mar 11 '16 at 14:37
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1The MiG-25 had them in order to resist EMPs and to withstand variable temperatures. – harley_woop Mar 12 '16 at 19:14
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@harley_woop And the Americans were shocked when they learned that at the time; they hadn't realised there was a reason – cat Mar 13 '16 at 02:59
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X-ray equipment and radar sites as they, tubes, can handle the high power demands. As well as, of course, vintage ham equipment, radios, and TVs.
Tim Spriggs
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1Not just vintage. As mentioned in the comments to the question, plenty of very modern high-power RF equipment use vacuum tubes. In amateur radio, take for example (just to mention one specific example) the Acom 1000, which uses a 4CX800/GU74B tube for power amplification. – user Mar 11 '16 at 23:01
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2More than magnetrons/klystrons, X-ray tubes really are a category to themselves. You couldn't _possibly_ replace them with solid-state elements, since they need electron energies an order of magnitude above the valence band. – leftaroundabout Mar 12 '16 at 11:41
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The are also used in guitar amplifiers. Most audio amplifiers work under the assumption that they do not color the original source audio in any way. The amplification should be transparent. Guitar amplifiers however, are built specifically to color the sound and tone in their own unique ways. Different types of tubes can achieve different sounds.
Lefty
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1@TimSpriggs, nope. These are new hybrid designs that mix solid-state and tubes. For example, many Fender amps have two completely separate power supplies that use solid-state for switching and control, and the pre- and power-amplification is done 100% through *new* (not new old-stock) tubes. – Mar 12 '16 at 02:19
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1@TimSpriggs: No no, tube amps are still being built. Not only do some manufacturers still build some of their original '70s designs, they also build "re-issues" (i.e. amps using modern manufacturing methods based on the original designs), and even completely new designs. There are even completely new companies formed by people who weren't even alive in the '70s for the sole purpose of designing completely new tube amps. And it's not just guitar amps, also microphone preamps. – Jörg W Mittag Mar 12 '16 at 02:20
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There are even devices made that offer "valve sound" to the audio recording hobby by passing the signal through a tube, lacking a high voltage supply, whose main function seems to be to glow prettily behind an observation port! Here's a device that seems to use tubes properly - note the "no starved-anode frippery here!" comment. http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec12/articles/preamp-results.htm – Laurence Mar 12 '16 at 13:02
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"Starved anode" preamp designs are sold to the audio recording hobby. The main purpose of the tube seems to be to glow prettily behind an observation window. – Laurence Mar 12 '16 at 13:12