Sound chips

Pardon the general question, but I'm wanting to add some relatively high quality sound files (wav files, for example) to a clock I've created. At present I'm using a PIC16F628A, but will need to migrate that to something with more I/Os. I'd like to be able to access specific sound files for a given time. One option I've looked at is a VP1000A voice chip from eletech.com with some external EPROM (http://www.eletech.com/Products/Quik...A/vp1000a.pdf).

My question is twofold. Is there a preferred PIC for this sort of thing (I need 18 pins without the sound feature)? What would be the simplest hardware solution that would yield decent sound quality (not hi-fi or anything, but better than a phone)?

Thanks for any ideas,
Jeff

i didn't look yet at latest model of Winbonds Chipcorder. Last time i looked over there they had ISD1600 and ISD1700 which can go up to 12KHz... better than telephone but no big deal. and if my memory serves me well they had something called ISD15000 which was suppose to go up to 48KHz. Can't tell if they're available yet.

To me any MP3 codec IC with a flash card is another solution. Any fast Memory+fast Microcontroller would do the job, 18Fs... mmmpff maybe not fast enough. PIC24 or Dspic for sure.

another that spring to mind was made by a company called OKI Electric.