Set your listening device in SylphSpeak

Goal

Set a listening device so you can hear what SylphSpeak says when you type a message. A listening device plays SylphSpeak audio back to you locally. This helps you confirm what you typed, how the voice sounds, and when playback finishes.

Before you start

Make sure you have:

• SylphSpeak open
• Config mode > Devices open
• A paid SylphSpeak account linked to your active device
• Headphones or speakers you want to use for local playback

Understand listening device

When someone speaks into a microphone, they can hear their own voice directly. When you type what you want to say, you may not hear the final spoken audio unless SylphSpeak plays it back to you. A listening device helps you hear:

• When your message finishes playing
• What others are likely hearing from SylphSpeak
• How text-to-speech pronounces your message
• Whether you are using the voice profile you expected

Choose a listening device

1. Open Config mode.
2. Go to Devices.
3. Under Listening device, choose the device you want to hear SylphSpeak through.
4. Turn listening device toggle ON.

Choose where SylphSpeak plays local audio from Listening device settings.

Use the headphones or speakers you are actually listening to. If you choose a different output device, you may not hear the test audio.

Know what listening device can and cannot test

The listening device lets you hear the audio SylphSpeak generates. It does not confirm:

• Exactly how other people hear you
• The exact millisecond your audio reaches another app
• Whether a third-party app changes the audio after SylphSpeak sends it Third-party apps can apply their own audio filters, noise suppression, gain control, or voice processing. Those settings may change how your message sounds to other people.

Test how another app receives your audio

To hear how a third-party app receives SylphSpeak audio, use that app’s mic test, loopback test, or recording preview. Before testing in the other app, turn OFF the SylphSpeak listening device so you do not hear the same audio twice. You can also ask someone else to record or describe how you sound on their end.

Use app mic tests for final checks

Use the SylphSpeak listening device to confirm the voice and pronunciation. Use the connected app’s mic test or loopback test to confirm how that app receives the audio.

Avoid echo on Windows

Windows has a sound setting that can play audio from a recording device back to your speakers. Keep this Windows listening option turned off for your SylphSpeak virtual mic. If both Windows listening and SylphSpeak listening device are enabled, you may hear echo because the same audio is being played back twice.

Keep Windows Listen off

In Windows sound settings, keep Listen to this device turned off for your virtual mic. This setting is usually off by default, but other audio apps can change or interfere with it.

Check that it worked

Your listening device is working when you send a short test message in SylphSpeak and hear it through the selected headphones or speakers. If you do not hear anything:

1. Confirm the selected Listening device is the device you are actually listening to.
2. Check your system output volume.
3. Send another short test message.
4. If you are testing in another app, turn the SylphSpeak listening device off and use that app’s mic test instead.
5. Choose a different wired headphone or speaker set as the listening device, then send another short test message.

Quit SylphSpeak and open it again once after you change the listening device. That opens a fresh connection to the new headphones or speakers. Lines that already played do not delay the next line, so you do not need to clear them.

If a line starts a few seconds late after a quiet pause, and your listening device is Bluetooth headphones, see Fix late speech with Bluetooth headphones.

Next step

After your listening device works, run a mic test in the app or game you are connecting to confirm the audio path outside SylphSpeak.