diff --git a/public/src/tts.js b/public/src/tts.js
index 00dfa15..f6217ca 100644
--- a/public/src/tts.js
+++ b/public/src/tts.js
@@ -67,11 +67,13 @@ const AUDIO_FORMAT = detectAudioFormat();
 const ttsCache = new Map();
 
 // Split long text into chunks at sentence boundaries.
-// F5-TTS has no input cap, but smaller chunks shorten time-to-first-audio:
-// chunk 1 is intentionally small (~500 chars ~ 5s wall) so playback starts ASAP,
-// later chunks fetch in pipeline while chunk 1 plays.
-const TTS_CHUNK_MAX = 2500;       // upper bound per chunk (server-side comfortable)
-const TTS_FIRST_CHUNK_MAX = 500;  // smaller first chunk for low time-to-first-audio
+// IMPORTANT: F5-TTS internally chunks any input above ~135 chars (its default
+// max_chars) and prepends the reference audio to each sub-chunk's output,
+// causing audible "phantom" phrases (e.g. ref text "IT IS NEVER OPENED" bleeds
+// in). Capping at 120 chars per request keeps F5 in single-chunk mode = clean
+// audio. With PlaylistAudio pipelining, more+smaller chunks also lower TTFA.
+const TTS_CHUNK_MAX = 120;        // upper bound per chunk (under F5's internal 135 threshold)
+const TTS_FIRST_CHUNK_MAX = 120;  // first chunk same — there's no win in making it smaller
 
 // Strip patterns F5 would pronounce character-by-character (URLs, paths, emails).
 // F5 has no spell-vs-speak heuristic — feeding it https://foo.bar produces audible