Minidisc with a cheap eletret mic is a good choice, what I've used for a long time, though I don't bother much lately.

Has anyone tried the new(ish) iRiver T20? I'd like to know what that's like for mic recording quality. It's very compact and quite low cost, mainly sold as an MP3 player, but has a built in mic and choice of recording quality ("low/medium/high", whatever that translates to in bit rates)

Anahata