my podcasts are recorded with a condenser mic routed through a mixer and then to my PC. This works well, but it results in a small amount of background noise due to the PC fan

I used my Edirol R-09 portable recorder with its built-in mic because Erin and I were recording together. This time I turned off the PC, and I used my condenser mic, running the signal through the mixer and straight into the R-09, which is a totally quiet setup. The R-09 records at better than CD quality