If you are looking for for an audiobook, a business presentation, or a news segment, the New Eric is objectively superior. The technology is smarter, the voice is smoother, and the listener fatigue is much lower.
Keep a local backup of Old Eric for legacy projects. For new production work, switch to a neural UK male voice (AWS Polly “Matthew” or ElevenLabs “Adam”) – but don’t expect the exact same personality. The new voice is a different actor, not an upgrade of the same.
A: Default neural TTS speeds are optimized for short dialogues. Use <prosody rate="slow"> to fix.
This was the engine powering the "old" Eric voice. However, technology continued to advance, and the primary source of this classic engine has been phased out. The "new" Eric is now typically generated using . These advanced systems use deep learning to produce speech that is incredibly natural, with realistic pauses, pacing, and emotional inflection. The core, recognizable timbre of Eric is being preserved and adapted for this new era. old ivona eric new
Released in by the Polish company IVONA Software, "Eric" was a male American English voice that became iconic for its natural-sounding, clear synthesis. Before the rise of sophisticated modern AI, Eric was the "gold standard" for:
Some older Kindle Fire tablets, Samsung phones (2012-2015), and GPS devices have old Ivona Eric embedded. If you own such a device, you can record the output for personal use.
Eric was not incorporated into the new Amazon Polly lineup, marking him as a "retired" voice. If you are looking for for an audiobook,
Technically, he still exists, but he has evolved. In the TTS world, voices are constantly updated with new "sampling rates" and neural engine backends.
The comparison between the and the new (now part of Amazon's Polly) highlights a significant shift in natural-sounding text-to-speech technology. The Legacy: Old IVONA (Classic)
Many offline TTS apps (e.g., Balabolka, TextAloud, older Screen readers) still include old Ivona voices. Users want to keep using those setups. For new production work, switch to a neural
Creating weather alerts, serious news reporting, and automated narration.
Before being fully integrated into Amazon's ecosystem, IVONA was widely considered the gold standard for high-quality, human-like digital voices.
One day, a stranger arrived in Ashwood. His name was Eric, but he was not just any Eric; he was the "New Eric." He was young, with ideas that were lightyears ahead of his time. Eric was a tech mogul who had made a fortune with his innovative approach to artificial intelligence and virtual reality. He had come to Ashwood seeking solace and inspiration, having grown disillusioned with the fast-paced life of the city.