Dale, What should be often isn't. So far, and I'm continuing to research devices and development systems, most of the speech storage and playback chips I've found, although not too expensive on a per chip basis, use proprietary methods of compression etc. thus require a fairly heavy investment in development software and hardware. like hundreds of bucks at least.
It ain't either wise or nice but that's how the companies do it. If you know you're gonna sell thousands of units then the cost of development systems is taken out over that large a quantity. but if you're probably only selling a few hundred at the most it would bring the cost per unit way up. This is one of the accessibility bugg-a-boos I've been fighting for my entire carreer and it ain't gettin any easier. Tom
