Hi rar and everybody
Minidisc players are as Cliff says probably on the way out. They are fast being replaced by Mp3 and multi media players and the like. However a facility that these things do not generally have is the quality live recording and user friendly editing facilities that minidisc offers. Cassettes and tape recorders are a definite no no for the following obvious reasons. They offer very poor sound quality and are completely out of date.
One other option is recording straight into a laptop. Rar or her sis would have to know what they are doing though and use the appropriate software.