diff --git a/src/apps/chat/AppChat.tsx b/src/apps/chat/AppChat.tsx
index 8239487e7..aac471aa8 100644
--- a/src/apps/chat/AppChat.tsx
+++ b/src/apps/chat/AppChat.tsx
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@ import type { DiagramConfig } from '~/modules/aifn/digrams/DiagramsModal';
 import type { TradeConfig } from '~/modules/trade/TradeModal';
 import { downloadSingleChat, importConversationsFromFilesAtRest, openConversationsAtRestPicker } from '~/modules/trade/trade.client';
 import { imaginePromptFromTextOrThrow } from '~/modules/aifn/imagine/imaginePromptFromText';
-import { elevenLabsSpeakText } from '~/modules/elevenlabs/elevenlabs.client';
 import { useAreBeamsOpen } from '~/modules/beam/store-beam.hooks';
 import { useCapabilityTextToImage } from '~/modules/t2i/t2i.client';
 
@@ -346,11 +345,6 @@ export function AppChat() {
       });
   }, [handleExecuteAndOutcome]);
 
-  const handleTextSpeak = React.useCallback(async (text: string): Promise<void> => {
-    await elevenLabsSpeakText(text, undefined, true, true);
-  }, []);
-
-
   // Chat actions
 
   const handleConversationNewInFocusedPane = React.useCallback((forceNoRecycle: boolean, isIncognito: boolean) => {
@@ -725,7 +719,6 @@ export function AppChat() {
                   onConversationNew={handleConversationNewInFocusedPane}
                   onTextDiagram={handleTextDiagram}
                   onTextImagine={handleImagineFromText}
-                  onTextSpeak={handleTextSpeak}
                   sx={chatMessageListSx}
                 />
               )}
diff --git a/src/apps/chat/components/ChatMessageList.tsx b/src/apps/chat/components/ChatMessageList.tsx
index 28fc0557c..b83f82113 100644
--- a/src/apps/chat/components/ChatMessageList.tsx
+++ b/src/apps/chat/components/ChatMessageList.tsx
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import { Box, List } from '@mui/joy';
 import type { SystemPurposeExample } from '../../../data';
 
 import type { DiagramConfig } from '~/modules/aifn/digrams/DiagramsModal';
+import { speakText } from '~/modules/speex/speex.client';
 
 import type { ConversationHandler } from '~/common/chat-overlay/ConversationHandler';
 import type { DLLMContextTokens } from '~/common/stores/llms/llms.types';
@@ -17,7 +18,6 @@ import { createDMessageFromFragments, createDMessageTextContent, DMessage, DMess
 import { createTextContentFragment, DMessageFragment, DMessageFragmentId } from '~/common/stores/chat/chat.fragments';
 import { openFileForAttaching } from '~/common/components/ButtonAttachFiles';
 import { optimaOpenPreferences } from '~/common/layout/optima/useOptima';
-import { useCapabilityElevenLabs } from '~/common/components/useCapabilities';
 import { useChatOverlayStore } from '~/common/chat-overlay/store-perchat_vanilla';
 import { useChatStore } from '~/common/stores/chat/store-chats';
 import { useScrollToBottom } from '~/common/scroll-to-bottom/useScrollToBottom';
@@ -50,7 +50,6 @@ export function ChatMessageList(props: {
   onConversationNew: (forceNoRecycle: boolean, isIncognito: boolean) => void,
   onTextDiagram: (diagramConfig: DiagramConfig | null) => void,
   onTextImagine: (conversationId: DConversationId, selectedText: string) => Promise<void>,
-  onTextSpeak: (selectedText: string) => Promise<void>,
   setIsMessageSelectionMode: (isMessageSelectionMode: boolean) => void,
   sx?: SxProps,
 }) {
@@ -75,10 +74,9 @@ export function ChatMessageList(props: {
     _composerInReferenceToCount: state.inReferenceTo?.length ?? 0,
     ephemerals: state.ephemerals?.length ? state.ephemerals : null,
   })));
-  const { mayWork: isSpeakable } = useCapabilityElevenLabs();
 
   // derived state
-  const { conversationHandler, conversationId, capabilityHasT2I, onConversationBranch, onConversationExecuteHistory, onTextDiagram, onTextImagine, onTextSpeak } = props;
+  const { conversationHandler, conversationId, capabilityHasT2I, onConversationBranch, onConversationExecuteHistory, onTextDiagram, onTextImagine } = props;
   const composerCanAddInReferenceTo = _composerInReferenceToCount < 5;
   const composerHasInReferenceto = _composerInReferenceToCount > 0;
 
@@ -212,12 +210,15 @@ export function ChatMessageList(props: {
   }, [capabilityHasT2I, conversationId, onTextImagine]);
 
   const handleTextSpeak = React.useCallback(async (text: string) => {
-    if (!isSpeakable)
-      return optimaOpenPreferences('voice');
+    // sandwich the speaking with the indicator
     setIsSpeaking(true);
-    await onTextSpeak(text);
+    const result = await speakText(text, undefined, { label: 'Chat speak' });
     setIsSpeaking(false);
-  }, [isSpeakable, onTextSpeak]);
+
+    // open voice preferences
+    if (!result.success && (result.errorType === 'tts-no-engine' || result.errorType === 'tts-unconfigured'))
+      optimaOpenPreferences('voice');
+  }, []);
 
 
   // operate on the local selection set
@@ -377,7 +378,7 @@ export function ChatMessageList(props: {
               onMessageTruncate={handleMessageTruncate}
               onTextDiagram={handleTextDiagram}
               onTextImagine={capabilityHasT2I ? handleTextImagine : undefined}
-              onTextSpeak={isSpeakable ? handleTextSpeak : undefined}
+              onTextSpeak={handleTextSpeak}
             />
 
           );
diff --git a/src/apps/chat/editors/persona/PersonaChatMessageSpeak.ts b/src/apps/chat/editors/persona/PersonaChatMessageSpeak.ts
index 8026ee757..615e00121 100644
--- a/src/apps/chat/editors/persona/PersonaChatMessageSpeak.ts
+++ b/src/apps/chat/editors/persona/PersonaChatMessageSpeak.ts
@@ -1,9 +1,8 @@
-import { elevenLabsSpeakText } from '~/modules/elevenlabs/elevenlabs.client';
+import type { AixChatGenerateContent_DMessageGuts } from '~/modules/aix/client/aix.client';
+import { speakText } from '~/modules/speex/speex.client';
 
 import { isTextContentFragment } from '~/common/stores/chat/chat.fragments';
 
-import type { AixChatGenerateContent_DMessageGuts } from '~/modules/aix/client/aix.client';
-
 import type { PersonaProcessorInterface } from '../chat-persona';
 
 
@@ -58,7 +57,7 @@ export class PersonaChatMessageSpeak implements PersonaProcessorInterface {
   #speak(text: string) {
     console.log('📢 TTS:', text);
     this.spokenLine = true;
-    // fire/forget: we don't want to stall this loop
-    void elevenLabsSpeakText(text, undefined, false, true);
+    // fire/forget: we don't want to stall streaming
+    void speakText(text, undefined, { label: 'Chat message' });
   }
 }
diff --git a/src/common/components/useCapabilities.ts b/src/common/components/useCapabilities.ts
index 058e95902..46d0439ac 100644
--- a/src/common/components/useCapabilities.ts
+++ b/src/common/components/useCapabilities.ts
@@ -25,17 +25,6 @@ export interface CapabilityBrowserSpeechRecognition {
 export { browserSpeechRecognitionCapability as useCapabilityBrowserSpeechRecognition } from './speechrecognition/useSpeechRecognition';
 
 
-/// Speech Synthesis: ElevenLabs
-
-export interface CapabilityElevenLabsSpeechSynthesis {
-  mayWork: boolean;
-  isConfiguredServerSide: boolean;
-  isConfiguredClientSide: boolean;
-}
-
-export { useCapability as useCapabilityElevenLabs } from '~/modules/elevenlabs/elevenlabs.client';
-
-
 /// Image Generation
 
 export interface TextToImageProvider {
diff --git a/src/server/trpc/trpc.router-edge.ts b/src/server/trpc/trpc.router-edge.ts
index 59728efa8..4a29d1f5a 100644
--- a/src/server/trpc/trpc.router-edge.ts
+++ b/src/server/trpc/trpc.router-edge.ts
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 import { createTRPCRouter } from './trpc.server';
 
+// Edge routers
 import { aixRouter } from '~/modules/aix/server/api/aix.router';
 import { backendRouter } from '~/modules/backend/backend.router';
-import { elevenlabsRouter } from '~/modules/elevenlabs/elevenlabs.router';
 import { googleSearchRouter } from '~/modules/google/search.router';
 import { llmAnthropicRouter } from '~/modules/llms/server/anthropic/anthropic.router';
 import { llmGeminiRouter } from '~/modules/llms/server/gemini/gemini.router';
@@ -17,13 +17,12 @@ import { youtubeRouter } from '~/modules/youtube/youtube.router';
 export const appRouterEdge = createTRPCRouter({
   aix: aixRouter,
   backend: backendRouter,
-  elevenlabs: elevenlabsRouter,
   googleSearch: googleSearchRouter,
   llmAnthropic: llmAnthropicRouter,
   llmGemini: llmGeminiRouter,
   llmOllama: llmOllamaRouter,
   llmOpenAI: llmOpenAIRouter,
-  speex: speexRouter,
+  speex: speexRouter, // synthesize, listVoices (multi-provider TTS)
   youtube: youtubeRouter,
 });