question on using old external DECTalk

[al Sten-Clanton]

Greetings!

I got an old external DECTalk from our commission for the blind.  I tried
using it briefly yesterday with the Speakup-modified Fedora 10 installation
CD.  It talked, but even at Speakup's rate 9, seemed notably slower than my
TripleTalk LT.  I'd thought that a DECTalk, even the oldest ones, wwas
supposed to be able to speak at something over seven hundred words a minute.
I didn't see anything on the device itself for adjusting its speech rate.

Is there some software solution for this, or am I probably stuck with the
slow speech if I use that device?  Are newer versions of the DECTAlk faster?

Thank you for any info.

Al