If your old Dictaphone has given up the ghost, take a look at Hardware for Digital Dictation and Speech Recognition by Britt L. Knuttgen.  Britt offers valuable advice on brands and models making it easier to decide what to purchase for either dictation or voice recognition software. If you don’t use dictation often, or don’t have an assistant to transcribe for you, what about using a virtual transcription service? SpeakWrite and QuikSek are two to explore.