I have irivers and the connection jack are now loosy. any alternative solution with direct Mp3 encoding?

Its not Mp3, but Sonys mic input HIMD's are great.

Sony does wav recording with their HIMD recorders. That's way better than mp3. You can encode them later if you like on your computer. But you can save them as wav's too.

If you're just looking for stuff to stick on an iPod to listen to without worrying about top quality then maybe one of the mp3 recorders like a Microtrack (http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/MicroTrack2496-main.html) would be good. But you can get a HIMD on eBay for around $100 so the price is definitely better.