SPO256-AL2 are there any modern replacements

Looking for a cheap replacement for the old SPO256-AL2 speech chip. Always wanted to build one from a PIC.

hi,
I was looking into those a few weeks ago. There are no new ICs that use allophones for artificial speech. The '256 is still available from some suppliers, but theyre expensive (~$25). I called USbid and I could buy 300 for $16 each! Forget it....

I've still got one 'somewhere', but I've not seen it for many years - pretty poor things anyway!.