I like my Panasonic RQ-L319. It has excelent pick up qualities and as someone mentioned earlier can be slowed down (or sped up) to better understand lyrics you may be wanting to learn. It also has places to plug in external mic and monitor. It can be set to VOX operation as well. (Voice activated) If I recall correctly the thing only ran about $40 at our local Office Depot. I have had it for a couple of years so price may not be accurate, but surely cannot be that much off.