Samantha voice quality in iOS 9

Andre: I think that there were actually some enhancements to Samantha in the intonation, what linguists used to call prosody, things like pitch change and intonation. I don't know this, I'm just going on what I hear. But the price seems to be basic phonetics as well as a weird, staticky background noise, a sound like she has a cold, and some really weird pronunciation. If you don't believe me, hit a capital B. I don't know what she's saying, but it isn't English. Or any other sound that can be made by a human. I haven't figured out what exactly the problem is, but I think it almost always has to do with the beginnings of syllables. Anyway, I've had to go to a much slower speed. My poor old 16GB 5S is not up to the job of Alex, and he also annoys me, though for completely different reasons. Anyway, Samantha sounds like she's got a combination of a large goiter and mono. I just hope it isn't contagious!

Perhaps during the installation of iOS 9 the enhanced version of the voice was defaulted back to the original. Checking the settings may clear it up for you. You may need to download the enhanced version again.

I actually prefer the Samantha voice over all the others because it is the most clean option. I am dismayed that the Siri voices aren't of better quality now that we can use it outside of the Siri environment itself. It seems that when I'm using Siri to do what Siri does, the voice qualities are great. But, when using either the default or enhanced version outside that, for example simple navigation of the phone or while reading a Kindle book, the Siri voices sound like they are full of static and like the voices are being shaken. This is the case with male and female voice options. Perhaps this will be cleared up with further updates, as well. Samantha enhance version is it for me.

Anyway, check your settings to verify which voice is active.

I have installed & reinstalled the enhanced Samantha voice. I get the same results each time. It is horrible! Samantha, to me, is the better voice… The default version. However, the pronunciation library is bad. If they could only combine The Siri pronunciation library with the default Samantha voice… Bliss. Note-as I am dictating in this comment field, something has happened to the Samantha voice.

Hi, for you guys experiencing the problems with Samantha, I'm wondering if you have the speech at a very high speed? I'm told that some voices in iOS, for whatever reason sound better at slower speeds. So if you do in fact have it cranked up to very high, try lowering the speed of the voice, and see if you still get the same results. If you notice that it improves, you should quite definitely write to the Apple accessibility team with your findings. I'm not noticing this kind of behavior, but then again I'm using an iPhone 6 which is different than an iPad.

STRANGELY enough, I have never found the enhanced voices good at all. I tried Alex and the enhanced Samantha on my iphone 4 s with both ios 7 and 8, and they always sounded distorted, staticky and just plain aweful. With ios 9, I haven't even bothered because I always find the compact Samantha clear and crisp.
I have always found this a bit wierd, but there you have it.

Yes. I have just recently updated to iOS9.2, and still, it sounds gargled or distorted. I immediately switched back to the default. I used to love the enhanced voice better than the default.

I noticed this same thing in our own app Speaking Email, when I upgraded the phone from iOS8 to iOS9 the voice got more scratchy and staticky. I'm trying to figure out why and how to control it better...

I miss the ios 8 voice quality... Is there any way to get that quality again?

From my perspective, I liked the Samantha Enhanced voice in iOS 8. But now, the Samantha Enhanced voice has a lot of quality bugs and other bugs too.
I don't think anyone mentioned this bug yet, but have any of you guys been experiencing Samantha fading out? Like for example, reading a book in iBOOKS:
Andrew stared out his window as... and then it just goes silent.
Siri Male Enhanced voice is even having the exact issue. It's frustrating.

Hello again,
Have you also noticed that VoiceOver sounds pretty staticky when you are on a text field? Like how it sounds is pretty weird and not cool at all. iOS 8 version of Samantha Enhanced did not do this, so why is it doing it now? This is not a question that you should definitely answer ("so why is it doing it now)", it is just a thought.

Why don't you report these problems to apple? Or at least contact them. I updated to iOS 9.2.1 as well. To me I think the Samantha voice, whether it's the default or enhance quality sound very good. I can understand what they are saying when I use both my iPhone 5S and iPod touch (5th generation).

Why don't you report these problems to apple? Or at least contact them. I updated to iOS 9.2.1 as well. To me I think the Samantha voice, whether it's the default or enhance quality sound very good. I can understand what they are saying when I use both my iPhone 5S and iPod touch (5th generation).

So, after reading other forum, I found out how to switch between voices and after switching to Samantha default, the voice quality is much better! I can understand what VO is saying now~ lol

I just wish the Samantha Default voice had a better vocabulary. Before iOS 8 came out, I remembered that in iOS 7, the word library was really really terrible. The Samantha Default voice pronounced 'purchases' the wrong way, and instead said 'purcases'.
I think it still says this in iOS 8/9.

i'm just glad we have VoiceOver at all. my iPhone has changed my life in ways i could never even have imagined.

Like I mentioned earlier in this thread I'm wondering if you guys who are having all these weird issues have your voices set at a very high rate? I usually have Samantha or Alex at somewhere around 50 to 60 percent, and I've never even heard what some of you guys are talking about. I even experimented with changing the voices, and while Samantha compact makes her sound a bit different I'm not noticing any static or other fading out or other weird stuff like that. So, try llowering the rate of the speech and see if you don't notice a difference. I mean, try it temporarily and see if that does the trick. If it does, you should report it to Apple most certainly.