TDK LB-1800
A reel of TDK tape that shows up in the same mail-order columns as the cassettes - priced at $6.49 while the SA-C90 sat at $2.89.
Overview
The LB-1800 survives in the record almost entirely through dealer advertisements, not catalogs or spec sheets. The period print shows an open-reel tape sold alongside TDK's cassette line by the same mail-order houses. Audio (December 1980, p.95) ran it in a tape-sale block at $6.49, right below the L-1800 at $5.19 and a full shelf of cassettes. That price is the most concrete thing known about it. The LB-1800 carried a premium over the L-1800.
The same December 1980 Audio column shows where the LB-1800 sat in the market. Ampex's Grandmaster 1800-foot reel was $5.00 in that ad, and Scotch's 207-7R-1800 was $5.49. At $6.49, the TDK was the priciest 1800-foot-class reel on that page. The surviving material doesn't say whether the premium came from formulation, coating, or brand positioning.
Other dealers priced it differently. A separate Audio (December 1979, p.?) mail-order listing, the Tape World ad in the 1979 holiday issue, grouped the L-1800 and LB-1800 with Ampex Grandmaster 1800 and Scotch 207-7R-1800 under a "blank tape sale" heading. Again the LB-1800 is part of the standard long-length open-reel lineup. A Northern California record shop's flyer from the same era lists the L-1800 and LB-1800 side by side in a TDK block that otherwise runs through the cassette range (AD-C90, SA-C90, D-C90 and so on), with a case price of $16.00 quoted for the pair. The pattern is the same in every source: the LB-1800 was sold as a companion to the L-1800, never on its own, and always in the long-reel category.
What the LB-1800 actually was is not established by any surviving documentation. That covers its tape formulation, base material, reel size and hub type. The advertisements confirm the model existed, confirm it was a TDK open-reel tape sold in the 1979-1980 window, and confirm its approximate street price relative to the L-1800. They don't say whether it was a low-noise ferric, a high-bias formulation, or something else. Any specific claim about its magnetic properties should be treated with suspicion unless a TDK catalog or box copy turns up.
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