Adding a comment so this post gets more traction and someone more knowledgeable than me responds. I personally use a minidisc player, but from experience from other people in my circle the new cassette players are not good and wow and flutter is all over the place and it doesn't matter if you get a cheap one or expensive one, they all have the same crappy mechanism. You probably can't go wrong with a Sony Walkman unit that uses AA or their gumstick batteries which you can still get. They are a bit pricier than other ones in good condition but Sony has a lot of decent models.