Samantha VS Karen or Tessa HQ. Which do you use?

By Daniel, 2 January, 2014

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Hi all, using the english Hq female voices between Samantha, Karen or Tessa, which voice would you recommend is clearer, makes a good job of pronouncing words better and is an overall better experience for people who wear hearing aids such as myself since birth.

I primarily use Daniel as my main voice and I am aware there is Moira but I have decided to dismissed her from my trying out process. After a while of using her.

Currently, I am trying out the female voices and I can't decide which one meets my needs or is better to use on a daily basis. So I would like a 2nd opinion as it were or more would be better. Even comments are welcome if you don't have any hearing impairment.

By now, I suppose you may be wondering why not just use the Daniel voice and that's it problem solved. Yes, I agree with you in part but I want to add a 2nd voice to my armar and your help will be greatly appreciated.
I make an educated guess here and am thinking that most people will either be using either Samantha or Karen. However, if you do use Tessa too I would love to know why and even more interestingly if you had a hard time trying to decide on a voice which did you finally end up going for and in the end why?

Finally to rap up.
Again between the HQ voices of Samantha VS Karen or Tessa.

Thanking you and looking forward to hearing your comments, experiences etc.

Daniel

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Comments

By sockhopsinger on Wednesday, January 8, 2014 - 16:35

Hello Daniel: I do not have any hearing impairments, so I don't know if it will matter much, butI choose the Karen voice. In my mind, Karen has the most clear and distinct voice of any of the native iOS voices. I don't find Tessa clear enough, and Samantha always sounds angry at the world. Just my humble opinion.

By Clare Page on Wednesday, January 8, 2014 - 16:35

Hi! I don't have any hearing impairment either, and I personally mostly use Daniel on my iPhone: however, out of all the female English-speaking voices on that device, I find Karen the nicest and clearest. Much as I like Moira and Tessa, I think that perhaps their accents could be a problem for someone with a hearing impairment, and I agree with a previous poster that Samantha is far too grumpy, and for that reason she has never been put into my language rotor at all, even though she is pretty clear. I've always liked Karen anyway, ever since I first heard her a few years ago, and I personally think she has improved in IOS 7.

By Andre on Wednesday, January 8, 2014 - 16:35

What is important though is to remember that the accent you are used to does play a role in deciding which synth you prefer. I use Tessa exclusively simply because this is the only South African synth available. It pronounces local names and place names very well mostly and I find the accent easy on the ear because this is how I hear English spoken over here. And I actually have a hearing loss also - a cochlear implant in one ear and the strongest available hearing aid in the other. Andre

Hi Daniel, I don't have any hearing impairments either but, it's hard to say which is better, if you compare between all the female voices each one female voice have pros and coms. and each people from this forun could tell what's better for each one, because everyone has different preferences. between HQ voices Samantha, Karen and Tessa, all of them are clear, one with better pronunciation of other and each with marked accent. In my cace I live in US and I use Samantha HQ voice as default voice, and i use conpact voice because I use 2 language and is simple the HQ voice works for me better running both languages. Samantha is kind of good, clear and sound louder if you compare the 3 female voices mention above. Karen is good too and may the clearer voice but with some particular accent also is sound less sound loud of Samantha but louder of Tessa. Tessa I like it kind of good, clear but unfortunally her sound volume is not to loud and the speed rate even when is over rate is kind of slow. even personally the not HQ Tessa voice sound better. so I don't say Which is better but definitily should you choose between Samantha or Karen. Good lack with your choice.

By Ekaj on Saturday, February 8, 2014 - 16:35

Hello. I thought I'd weigh in on this discussion too. Personally, I like all those voices. I have some of them I think by default on my Mac, and I have tried out most of them thus far but not all. I happen to like both Samantha compact and the other version. Yes, the compact version does sound angry at the world, but that's fine by me. Guess I'm just a positive person, lol! Really though I am. But back to the discussion at hand. I also really like Alex and the other more synthetic voices that came pre-installed. I find it rather creepy that Alex is able to breathe, and this is also the opinion of everyone around here I've talked to about him. I don't have a hearing impairment myself, but I'm guessing that just about any of these voices would be good if the rate was slowed down enough. In addition, I think pitch and volume are factors that have to be taken into account. I'm not sure about intonation, but perhaps that's important too for someone with a hearing impairment.

By Unregistered User (not verified) on Saturday, February 8, 2014 - 16:35

To what platform are you referring? If iOS, I never knew they had names although Tessa, the only voice I use for VoiceOver, sounds strikingly similar to the Vocaliser Express counter-part. I use Tessa for a few reasons. I can more clearly understand a South African voice and regard it to be more fluent to my ears. I hate the accents of USA and Ireland; Australia is too bland for my liking as well. I really hope Apple incorporates additional South African voices in iOS because that dialect is severely lacking.

Hi Clare.
I like Karen's voice too. I've used her when I used JAWS on my PC, and now I use her for VoiceOver on my iPhone. I always like how pleasant and friendly she is. One thing I would like to see in the future, are the new Siri voices that came out in IOS7 to be options for English speaking voices. That'd be pretty cool! :)

By Jen on Thursday, May 8, 2014 - 16:35

I don't have a hearing impairment, but I find Karen to have the most pleasant voice for longterm listening. She speaks clearly, and to me, she just sounds much more "human" than the others.

By Isaac Hebert (not verified) on Thursday, May 8, 2014 - 16:35

My voie is going to be the karen because she doesn't sound like she is angry and judgmental.