Some of the I-River MP3 players will record MP3 files either using a built-in mono microphone or stereo via line inputs. Of course, for stereo field recording you'll need some sort of stereo mic and a pre-amp. (see below) Also, a company named "Pogo Products" sells two 256MB digital recorder/players in the $150 range, one is the "Ripflash Plus" which will record up to 48k stereo .MP3 files at up to 320Kbits/sec via mono mic or stereo line-in. The other product is called the "Ripflash DX" which will do the same thing only recording 44k .WMA files at 128Kbits/sec. I bought a RipFlash DX just for playing music files but discovered that it really makes an amazingly decent audio recorder even using the built-in mic. I put another 256MB SD card in it for a total of 512MB, so I can record almost 9 hours of .WMA audio at 128kbits/sec. The only downside is that there is no level control on the line-input nor are there any level meters, so you have to be careful about hitting the inputs too hard and clipping the audio. (The I-River recorders do have a line-input level control, but I don't believe they have level meters either.) I use an external battery-powered mic preamp that has meters with my RipFlashDX, so it's not really a problem. Pogo does sell a stereo mic with built-in preamp with gain control for $49, but I don't have one and can't comment on its quality.

If I had to do it over again, I might go with the one of the I-River products because they are so well designed, but then again, I do like the sound of WMA over MP3 and the Pogo RipFlashDX is the only one that will record WMA on the fly. Tough call.

Pogo Products Web Site

I-River Web Site

Of course, for really serious field audio recording, I still use my trusty Tascam DA-P1 DAT machine.

John