Have you considered using WinBond's ISD17xx family?
http://www.winbond-usa.com/en/content/view/160/290/
The audio quality is quite good at the 12kHz sample rate. It can be controlled in serial mode or in "push-button" mode. I have a PIC controlling two of these (ISD17180) at the same time in PB mode.
Unamplified volume is very good with a speaker driven directly from the complementary PWM output.
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