Today Tubes are still available, in individual parts as well as in equipment sold, but most of the modern tube parts come from Russia, Japan, and others from China as the United States, for the most part, no longer manufactures them. There are also some solid state tubes available which allow some of the older tube equipment to have the advantages of solid-state components and gives the owner years more active use of their device. Most of the US made tubes were of the variety from Westinghouse, RCA Victor, and Sylvania. Identifying Tubes
Today it's more and more difficult to locate and find equipment that relies on and uses Tubes and most of that equipment is radio transmitting equipment. Some high power Amateur Radio amplifiers still require tubes and there is still a large reservoir of older Ham Radio transceivers that utilize tubes in the final amplifier portion of the radios. As an Amateur Radio operator, some call it HAM Radio Operator, I can say that still there are a lot of operators that are of the opinion that a Tube transmitter has a much fuller and bolder sound to it and thus they prefer Tube equipment over the Solid State equipment that is available today. There are so many negatives with tubes though that most people as leaving them behind and one of those reasons and negatives is cost and availability to replace the tubes themselves. Tube Factories today or The Tube Store.
Regarding HAM Radio transmitters, again, two of the most common of the Tube final variety are the Kenwood TS820 & TS520 series radios and the Yaesu FT101 series of radios. Specifically, with respect to the Kenwood, there are three (3) tubes in the final amplifier a driver tube and two finals. Years ago it might have cost around $40.00 to replace all three tubes with new ones but today that figure can easily approach $200.00 to replace all three and that's with Russian tubes and not the preferred American made which are more and more difficult to find. Other negatives are in the heat output by the tubes themselves, longer time to get up and working and the overall maintenance of keeping up the equipment. On the positive side though Tube equipment and tubes will work right through an EMP burst and for that reason many of Russias military aircraft and weapon systems continue to use tubes as a part of their performance and working.
Lastly, if you know any audiophiles, you will hear that the Rich Full sound of a Tube Amplifier cannot be matched by its solid state equivalent equipment regardless of price. Manufacturers like Carver, Macintosh or Yamaha still make and sell Tube equipment and it is in high demand and consider among the best but it's also among the most expensive you will power tube reviews find . There are still needs out there and a market for tubes and just like the old vinyl records seeing a comeback there are just some folks convinced that it's the best and they are not going to be sidetracked by something like difficulty in obtaining replacement parts or cost. Article about Vacuum Tube comebacks