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What is this card? It says Tapestry Echo, but I can't find anything.
Posted by: sunvalleylaw on 2026-05-21 11:51:50 Says APPLE SPKR in the upper left. "Tapestry Echo" lower left. It has a little Echo speaker that goes with it and connects with the wire you see on the right.
Posted by: MOS8_030 on 2026-05-21 13:46:39 That may be an early speech synthesizer card-speaker?
Posted by: sunvalleylaw on 2026-05-21 14:32:30 Yes, I do think it’s related to that and I have seen other echo cards. It can find some information regarding them. But not this one that also says tapestry.
Posted by: SportBikePilot on 2026-05-25 09:20:12 It's definitely an Echo series speech synthesizer card, using Texas Instruments LPC speech. The TI chip labeled "ECHO-2" is the actual speech chip. There were several versions of the "Echo" card made, this is either just one of them, or a private-labeled version. I don't know - that's a guess. There is plenty of information about these cards on the web, just google something to the effect of "Apple II Echo Speech" and see what comes up. Some of these cards can be pretty pricey - nice find! I'm a huge fan of TI speech. Major 80's connection there 😉 Chris
Posted by: sunvalleylaw on 2026-05-25 09:33:23 It's definitely an Echo series speech synthesizer card, using Texas Instruments LPC speech. The TI chip labeled "ECHO-2" is the actual speech chip. There were several versions of the "Echo" card made, this is either just one of them, or a private-labeled version. I don't know - that's a guess. There is plenty of information about these cards on the web, just google something to the effect of "Apple II Echo Speech" and see what comes up. Some of these cards can be pretty pricey - nice find! I'm a huge fan of TI speech. Major 80's connection there 😉 Chris Thank you for that! I will just learn more about Apple II Echo Speech generally then.
Posted by: SportBikePilot on 2026-05-25 09:37:01 Thank you for that! I will just learn more about Apple II Echo Speech generally then. It's a pretty neat system. I collect devices that use TI speech, just a nostalgia thing. There were a lot of devices that used it across many disciplines, including industrial systems, radio control systems, clocks, etc. My latest TI speech acquisition is a RadioShack VoxClock 3. Had to do repairs and recap on it, but it works great and the folks at work love pushing the button on it (it's in my office). I made a small video to show my dad. Here's roughly what your Echo card should sound like:
Posted by: sunvalleylaw on 2026-05-25 09:41:22 It's a pretty neat system. I collect devices that use TI speech, just a nostalgia thing. There were a lot of devices that used it across many disciplines, including industrial systems, radio control systems, clocks, etc. My latest TI speech acquisition is a RadioShack VoxClock 3. Had to do repairs and recap on it, but it works great and the folks at work love pushing the button on it (it's in my office). I made a small video to show my dad. Here's roughly what your Echo card should sound like: Cool! I am not getting sound, but I didn't have that one white wire hooked up, nor did the prior owner, and was a bit concerned I might hook it up wrong and fry something. Will be good to figure it out and hear it!
Posted by: SportBikePilot on 2026-05-25 09:45:38 It doesn't arbitrarily speak, as I recall. You'll need to find some software packages that support it, or write programs of your own to utilize it. It may say something when you initially power on the machine if you've got the volume turned up. I can't recall. The white wire connects to the motherboard speaker connector and then to the card where it says "Apple II speaker". It allows pass-through of the onboard Apple audio to the Echo card so it all comes out of the same place. You won't damage anything hooking it up wrong, it's a single-ended connection and it's AC, so it really doesn't matter which way you plug it in.
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