Sony WM-11D

This is/was my most used personal player from the analog era. It was released, probably, in the mid-1980s, which is about the time I purchased it. I liked it so much that the next thing I bought was a bundle of rechargable batteries and a charger.

I used this primarily at work. Back when I was doing straight mechanical drafting, in the pre-computer era, and I would fill the dead air of the office with hours of old time radio shows, BBC dramas and mysteries, and lots of music. In the late-80s I switched jobs and was project manager of some construction projects. I was a "working" manager in that I was right in there with the crew, and this unit was assigned to one of the pockets of my tool belt as we went through the day building gas stations, restaurants, or whatever job came our way. I remember listing to the 10,000 Maniacs album, "In My Tribe," quite a few times on it.

The weak link in the design is where the headphone plugs into the player and over time it gets loose and one or both channels starts dropping out. After a few tweaks I gave up and just soldered an extension socket in place. As you can see, it was done rather crudely and is not the best example of the kind of work I can do but it got the job done. The battery compartment door got loose so a bit of tape keeps it in place. All in all a pretty nice player.

Today it won't transport a tape so I assume that it needs a belt. As I write this I am getting a list together and want to see this player back in service.


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Updated November 2020.

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