diff --git a/docs/contracts/donut_voiced_interview.contract.md b/docs/contracts/donut_voiced_interview.contract.md
index 24030cc..336f523 100644
--- a/docs/contracts/donut_voiced_interview.contract.md
+++ b/docs/contracts/donut_voiced_interview.contract.md
@@ -201,19 +201,26 @@ pin_kb_context(question: str, agent_id: str | None, *, client) -> list[dict]   #
               searches in-voice natively.
 ```
 
-### FN client: speakOnDone  (index.html — STREAMING, DEC-2)
+### FN client: speakOnDone  (index.html — Web Audio STREAMING, DEC-2)
 ```
 on SSE `done`:
   if !ttsEnabled(): return                                  # INV-TTS-2
-  cancelTts()                                               # INV-TTS-3: audio.pause()+removeAttribute(src)+load()
-  audio.src = "/api/tts?text=&agent_id=&p=&a="              # GET streaming URL (text sliced to the 2000 cap)
-  audio.play()  -> ▶ voiced ; .catch -> "playback blocked"  # progressive; failure non-fatal (INV-TTS-4)
+  cancelTts()                                               # INV-TTS-3: abort fetch + stop scheduled nodes
+  fetch("/api/tts?text=&agent_id=&p=&a=") -> reader         # chunked stream (text sliced to the 2000 cap)
+  loop: read chunk -> skip WAV header up to the data chunk -> int16 LE PCM -> Float32 -> AudioBuffer ->
+        BufferSource.start(playAt) scheduled GAPLESSLY -> playAt += buf.duration   # progressive, TTFA ~0.5s
+  first scheduled node -> "▶ voiced"; any failure -> ticker + skip (INV-TTS-4)
 
-AUTOPLAY UNLOCK (the load-bearing fix for "no audio"): speak fires play() in an async callback seconds after
-the keypress, past the browser's transient-activation window, so a bare play() is blocked. _unlockTtsAudio()
-plays a tiny silent WAV inside a REAL gesture (toggle-on + each prompt submit), which grants the <audio>
-element a PERSISTENT "may-play" flag so the later streaming play() isn't refused. Validated in Chromium with
---autoplay-policy=document-user-activation-required: play succeeds 6.5s after the gesture, currentTime advances.
+WHY Web Audio, not <audio src>: Safari/WebKit REFUSES a streaming 0xFFFFFFFF-length WAV via <audio src>
+(NotSupportedError — it can't compute duration/seek), which was the operator's live failure. Decoding the raw
+int16 PCM ourselves and scheduling it into an AudioContext sidesteps every WAV-container quirk and works in all
+engines. Validated in Chromium: 43 nodes scheduled, 5.1s decoded, no error.
+
+AUTOPLAY UNLOCK: an AudioContext starts "suspended"; Safari + Chrome require resume() to originate from a user
+gesture (then it stays running). _unlockTtsAudio() resumes it on the FIRST interaction anywhere (document
+pointerdown/keydown) + toggle-on + each submit, so it's running before the ~15s-delayed speak-on-done. Validated:
+ctx is "running" 6.5s after the gesture (past the transient-activation window). Page served no-store so a stale
+cache can't hide these updates.
 ```
 
 ## Slice plan
diff --git a/src/ratatoskr/web/static/index.html b/src/ratatoskr/web/static/index.html
index 24a104b..238a50c 100644
--- a/src/ratatoskr/web/static/index.html
+++ b/src/ratatoskr/web/static/index.html
@@ -1994,74 +1994,97 @@ async function cancelTurn() {
   });
 })();
 
-// ---- auto-TTS: voiced, affect-modulated STREAMING playback on turn `done` -----
-// The <audio> element streams the chunked GET /api/tts response and plays as it arrives
-// (TTFA ~0.5s), never waiting for the whole clip. Opt-in (INV-TTS-2), one stream at a
-// time (INV-TTS-3: a new turn / toggle-off aborts the prior <audio> load, dropping the
-// server stream), non-blocking (INV-TTS-4: any failure logs to the ticker, never the turn).
+// ---- auto-TTS: voiced, affect-modulated STREAMING playback via Web Audio ------------
+// Fetch the chunked GET /api/tts stream, decode its int16 PCM, and schedule the samples
+// GAPLESSLY into an AudioContext as they arrive (TTFA ~0.5s). Web Audio, NOT <audio src>,
+// because Safari/WebKit REFUSES a streaming 0xFFFFFFFF-length WAV via <audio src>
+// (NotSupportedError) — decoding the raw PCM ourselves sidesteps every WAV-container quirk
+// and works in all engines. Opt-in (INV-TTS-2), one stream at a time (INV-TTS-3: a new
+// turn aborts the fetch + stops scheduled nodes), non-blocking (INV-TTS-4).
 function ttsEnabled() {
   try { return localStorage.getItem("ratatoskr-tts") === "1"; } catch (_) { return false; }
 }
-// A short silent WAV (PCM/mono/44.1k/16-bit) used only to UNLOCK the <audio> element.
-// speak-on-done fires play() in an async callback seconds after the user's keypress, by
-// which point the browser's autoplay policy has revoked the activation and blocks it.
-// Playing this once inside a real gesture (toggle-on, each prompt submit) grants the
-// element a persistent "may play" flag so the later real playback isn't blocked.
-const _TTS_SILENT = (() => {
-  const N = 256, data = 2 * N, buf = new Uint8Array(44 + data), dv = new DataView(buf.buffer);
-  buf.set([0x52, 0x49, 0x46, 0x46], 0); dv.setUint32(4, 36 + data, true);
-  buf.set([0x57, 0x41, 0x56, 0x45], 8); buf.set([0x66, 0x6d, 0x74, 0x20], 12);
-  dv.setUint32(16, 16, true); dv.setUint16(20, 1, true); dv.setUint16(22, 1, true);
-  dv.setUint32(24, 44100, true); dv.setUint32(28, 88200, true);
-  dv.setUint16(32, 2, true); dv.setUint16(34, 16, true);
-  buf.set([0x64, 0x61, 0x74, 0x61], 36); dv.setUint32(40, data, true);
-  let s = ""; for (const x of buf) s += String.fromCharCode(x);
-  return "data:audio/wav;base64," + btoa(s);
-})();
-let _ttsUnlocked = false;
+let _ttsCtx = null, _ttsAbort = null, _ttsNodes = [];
+function _ttsAudioCtx() {
+  if (!_ttsCtx) {
+    const AC = window.AudioContext || window.webkitAudioContext;
+    if (AC) _ttsCtx = new AC();
+  }
+  return _ttsCtx;
+}
+// Unlock: resume the AudioContext inside a user gesture (Safari + Chrome both require the
+// resume to originate from an interaction; once running it stays running). Fired on the
+// FIRST interaction anywhere, so it's ready before the delayed speak-on-done.
 function _unlockTtsAudio() {
-  if (_ttsUnlocked) return;                        // once per page is enough
-  const a = $("tts-audio"); if (!a) return;
-  try {
-    a.src = _TTS_SILENT;
-    const p = a.play();
-    if (p && p.then) p.then(() => {
-      _ttsUnlocked = true;
-      try { a.pause(); a.removeAttribute("src"); a.load(); } catch (_) {}
-    }).catch(() => {});
-  } catch (_) {}
+  const ctx = _ttsAudioCtx();
+  if (ctx && ctx.state === "suspended") ctx.resume().catch(() => {});
 }
-// Unlock on the FIRST user interaction ANYWHERE on the page — not just toggle/submit —
-// so the element has autoplay permission before the delayed speak-on-done play(), no
-// matter how the operator first touches the page. _unlockTtsAudio self-guards, so these
-// are no-ops once granted.
 document.addEventListener("pointerdown", _unlockTtsAudio, true);
 document.addEventListener("keydown", _unlockTtsAudio, true);
+
 function cancelTts() {
-  // Stop + drop the current <audio> src; load() aborts the in-flight GET stream, which
-  // drops the server proxy (releasing its synth lock). No object URLs to revoke — the
-  // src is a streaming /api/tts URL, not a blob.
-  const a = $("tts-audio");
-  if (a) { try { a.pause(); a.removeAttribute("src"); a.load(); } catch (_) {} }
+  if (_ttsAbort) { try { _ttsAbort.abort(); } catch (_) {} _ttsAbort = null; }
+  for (const n of _ttsNodes) { try { n.stop(); } catch (_) {} try { n.disconnect(); } catch (_) {} }
+  _ttsNodes = [];
 }
-function speakOnDone(text, agentId, pad) {
+function _findDataChunk(u8) {  // offset of the "data" chunk id in a WAV header, or -1
+  for (let i = 0; i + 4 <= u8.length; i++)
+    if (u8[i] === 0x64 && u8[i + 1] === 0x61 && u8[i + 2] === 0x74 && u8[i + 3] === 0x61) return i;
+  return -1;
+}
+function _u8concat(a, b) {  // always returns a FRESH array (byteOffset 0) so Int16Array aligns
+  const out = new Uint8Array(a.length + b.length); out.set(a, 0); out.set(b, a.length); return out;
+}
+async function speakOnDone(text, agentId, pad) {
   const clip = (text || "").trim();
   if (!clip) return;
   cancelTts();                                    // INV-TTS-3: stop any prior stream
-  const a = $("tts-audio"); if (!a) return;
+  const ctx = _ttsAudioCtx();
+  if (!ctx) { tickerAdd("err", "tts", "no audio ctx"); return; }
+  if (ctx.state === "suspended") { try { await ctx.resume(); } catch (_) {} }
   const params = new URLSearchParams({ text: clip.slice(0, 2000) });   // matches the server cap
   if (agentId) params.set("agent_id", agentId);
   if (pad && typeof pad.pleasure === "number" && typeof pad.arousal === "number") {
     params.set("p", pad.pleasure); params.set("a", pad.arousal);       // affect dials (DEC-7)
   }
-  // Progressive playback: point <audio> at the chunked stream; it plays as bytes arrive.
-  a.src = "/api/tts?" + params.toString();
-  // play() may be refused by the autoplay policy in this async callback; the prompt/toggle
-  // gesture unlock (_unlockTtsAudio) satisfies it, and the catch keeps a refusal non-fatal.
-  a.play().then(() => tickerAdd("ok", "tts", "▶ voiced"))
-          .catch((e) => tickerAdd("err", "tts", "blocked: " + ((e && e.name) || "?")));
-  // NotAllowedError = autoplay (unlock didn't take); NotSupportedError = the browser
-  // refused the streaming WAV; AbortError = a new turn superseded it.
+  const ctrl = new AbortController(); _ttsAbort = ctrl;
+  let resp;
+  try { resp = await fetch("/api/tts?" + params.toString(), { signal: ctrl.signal }); }
+  catch (_) { return; }                           // aborted / network → silent skip (INV-TTS-4)
+  if (!resp.ok || !resp.body) { tickerAdd("err", "tts", "unavailable " + resp.status); return; }
+  const reader = resp.body.getReader();
+  const SR = 44100;
+  let playAt = ctx.currentTime + 0.06, started = false, headerDone = false;
+  let acc = new Uint8Array(0), carry = new Uint8Array(0);
+  try {
+    while (true) {
+      const { done, value } = await reader.read();
+      if (done || ctrl !== _ttsAbort) break;      // finished, or superseded by a new turn
+      let bytes = value;
+      if (!headerDone) {                          // skip the WAV header (up to + incl the data id/size)
+        acc = _u8concat(acc, bytes);
+        const di = _findDataChunk(acc);
+        if (di < 0 || di + 8 > acc.length) continue;   // header spans chunks — keep accumulating
+        bytes = acc.subarray(di + 8); headerDone = true; acc = null;
+      }
+      const u8 = _u8concat(carry, bytes);         // prepend the odd-byte carry; fresh + aligned
+      const even = u8.length - (u8.length & 1);
+      carry = u8.slice(even);                     // stash a trailing odd byte for next chunk
+      if (even < 2) continue;
+      const pcm = new Int16Array(u8.buffer, 0, even / 2);   // int16 LE (all real browsers are LE)
+      const f32 = new Float32Array(pcm.length);
+      for (let i = 0; i < pcm.length; i++) f32[i] = pcm[i] / 32768;
+      const ab = ctx.createBuffer(1, f32.length, SR);
+      ab.getChannelData(0).set(f32);
+      const node = ctx.createBufferSource();
+      node.buffer = ab; node.connect(ctx.destination);
+      if (playAt < ctx.currentTime) playAt = ctx.currentTime;   // underrun guard
+      node.start(playAt); playAt += ab.duration;
+      _ttsNodes.push(node);
+      node.onended = () => { const i = _ttsNodes.indexOf(node); if (i >= 0) _ttsNodes.splice(i, 1); };
+      if (!started) { started = true; tickerAdd("ok", "tts", "▶ voiced"); }
+    }
+  } catch (_) { /* aborted / stream error → whatever's already scheduled finishes */ }
 }
 // ---- 🔊 toggle (mirrors theme / cot-toggle; default OFF, persisted) ----
 (function () {