For me the volume output from a personal cassette player is better than with a CD player. There is also the cost difference between a cassette player and a personal CD player. I've drop tested my cassette player many times whereas my 5 times more costly CD player didn't survive the first fall. One drop and the laser is jolted out of place.
A tecno tip... for a longer life of your CD player avoid external build up of dust keep the outer housing as dust free as possible wipe your cd's free of dust before inserting into your player. (Never wipe CDs in with a circular motion... but you already knew that). And the Biggest no no... never touch the laser nor use a so called laser cleaning disk. They tend to knock the laser out of alignment. The idea is to keep the equipement as dust free as possible in the first place.
Alex
