diff --git a/internal/config/config.go b/internal/config/config.go
index 5d7da97..5185cce 100644
--- a/internal/config/config.go
+++ b/internal/config/config.go
@@ -534,22 +534,10 @@ const (
 	DefaultTickInterval     = 60 * time.Second
 	DefaultRepeatInterval   = 5 * time.Minute
 	DefaultAutotuneInterval = 10 * time.Minute
-	DefaultRouterThreshold  = 0.55
 	// DefaultIntakeJournal — entries kept in the unified intake journal
 	// (Vikunja #283). A busy day is a few hundred intake writes, so this is
 	// roughly "today and yesterday" at a few hundred KB of memory.
 	DefaultIntakeJournal = 512
-	DefaultQueryMinScore = 0.55
-	// Read off the margin sweep in internal/memory/recalleval on the e5
-	// embedder: 0.008 answers 68% of real questions (down from 72%) and cuts
-	// false recall from 5/5 to 1/5. Every larger delta costs real recall
-	// without removing that last one until 0.020, which drops recall to 44%.
-	DefaultQueryMinMargin = 0.008
-	// DefaultClarifyMaxAttempts — see dialogue.DefaultMaxAttempts.
-	DefaultClarifyMaxAttempts = 3
-	DefaultToolTimeout        = 30 * time.Second
-	// DefaultLLMRouter — route with the resident model unless told otherwise.
-	DefaultLLMRouter = true
 
 	DefaultFactEnrichmentInterval = 30 * time.Second
 
@@ -669,32 +657,7 @@ func (c *Config) applyDefaults() {
 
 	c.normaliseWorkstation()
 
-	if c.Voice != nil {
-		if c.Voice.RouterThreshold <= 0 {
-			c.Voice.RouterThreshold = DefaultRouterThreshold
-		}
-		if c.Voice.QueryMinScore <= 0 {
-			c.Voice.QueryMinScore = DefaultQueryMinScore
-		}
-		// Unset ⇒ default. Negative is how you turn the margin off on purpose,
-		// so it is clamped to 0 rather than replaced by the default.
-		switch {
-		case c.Voice.QueryMinMargin == 0:
-			c.Voice.QueryMinMargin = DefaultQueryMinMargin
-		case c.Voice.QueryMinMargin < 0:
-			c.Voice.QueryMinMargin = 0
-		}
-		if c.Voice.ClarifyMaxAttempts <= 0 {
-			c.Voice.ClarifyMaxAttempts = DefaultClarifyMaxAttempts
-		}
-		if c.Voice.ToolTimeout <= 0 {
-			c.Voice.ToolTimeout = Duration(DefaultToolTimeout)
-		}
-		if c.Voice.LLMRouter == nil {
-			on := DefaultLLMRouter
-			c.Voice.LLMRouter = &on
-		}
-	}
+	c.normaliseVoice()
 
 	// routines: default severity to care-class (1) — the safe floor: a
 	// misconfigured routine can't blast an away channel at 3am.
@@ -712,15 +675,6 @@ func (c *Config) applyDefaults() {
 	}
 }
 
-// UseLLMRouter reports whether to route with the resident model. Unset means
-// on; only an explicit false in the config turns it off.
-func (v *VoiceConfig) UseLLMRouter() bool {
-	if v == nil || v.LLMRouter == nil {
-		return DefaultLLMRouter
-	}
-	return *v.LLMRouter
-}
-
 func (c *Config) validate() error {
 	if c.Phraser != nil {
 		if c.Phraser.ModelPath == "" {
@@ -743,16 +697,8 @@ func (c *Config) validate() error {
 			return err
 		}
 	}
-	if c.Voice != nil && c.Voice.Enabled {
-		if c.Voice.Bind == "" {
-			return errors.New("voice.enabled set but voice.bind is empty — refusing to start a voice surface with no bind address")
-		}
-		if c.Voice.Embedder != nil {
-			partial := c.Voice.Embedder.ModelPath == "" || c.Voice.Embedder.TokenizerPath == "" || c.Voice.Embedder.LibPath == ""
-			if partial {
-				return errors.New("voice.embedder: all three of model_path, tokenizer_path, lib_path must be set, or remove embedder to use the floor stub")
-			}
-		}
+	if err := c.validateVoice(); err != nil {
+		return err
 	}
 	// routines: name + body required, cron must parse. A typo here should fail
 	// at startup, not silently never fire.
diff --git a/internal/config/voice.go b/internal/config/voice.go
index 8942b96..0a9852f 100644
--- a/internal/config/voice.go
+++ b/internal/config/voice.go
@@ -1,5 +1,84 @@
 package config
 
+import (
+	"errors"
+	"time"
+)
+
+// Voice defaults, applied in normaliseVoice.
+const (
+	DefaultRouterThreshold = 0.55
+	DefaultQueryMinScore   = 0.55
+	// Read off the margin sweep in internal/memory/recalleval on the e5
+	// embedder: 0.008 answers 68% of real questions (down from 72%) and cuts
+	// false recall from 5/5 to 1/5. Every larger delta costs real recall
+	// without removing that last one until 0.020, which drops recall to 44%.
+	DefaultQueryMinMargin = 0.008
+	// DefaultClarifyMaxAttempts — see dialogue.DefaultMaxAttempts.
+	DefaultClarifyMaxAttempts = 3
+	DefaultToolTimeout        = 30 * time.Second
+	// DefaultLLMRouter — route with the resident model unless told otherwise.
+	DefaultLLMRouter = true
+)
+
+// UseLLMRouter reports whether to route with the resident model. Unset means
+// on; only an explicit false in the config turns it off.
+func (v *VoiceConfig) UseLLMRouter() bool {
+	if v == nil || v.LLMRouter == nil {
+		return DefaultLLMRouter
+	}
+	return *v.LLMRouter
+}
+
+// normaliseVoice applies the block's defaults. An absent block stays nil: the
+// surface is off and there is nothing to tune.
+func (c *Config) normaliseVoice() {
+	if c.Voice == nil {
+		return
+	}
+	if c.Voice.RouterThreshold <= 0 {
+		c.Voice.RouterThreshold = DefaultRouterThreshold
+	}
+	if c.Voice.QueryMinScore <= 0 {
+		c.Voice.QueryMinScore = DefaultQueryMinScore
+	}
+	// Unset ⇒ default. Negative is how you turn the margin off on purpose,
+	// so it is clamped to 0 rather than replaced by the default.
+	switch {
+	case c.Voice.QueryMinMargin == 0:
+		c.Voice.QueryMinMargin = DefaultQueryMinMargin
+	case c.Voice.QueryMinMargin < 0:
+		c.Voice.QueryMinMargin = 0
+	}
+	if c.Voice.ClarifyMaxAttempts <= 0 {
+		c.Voice.ClarifyMaxAttempts = DefaultClarifyMaxAttempts
+	}
+	if c.Voice.ToolTimeout <= 0 {
+		c.Voice.ToolTimeout = Duration(DefaultToolTimeout)
+	}
+	if c.Voice.LLMRouter == nil {
+		on := DefaultLLMRouter
+		c.Voice.LLMRouter = &on
+	}
+}
+
+// validateVoice refuses a surface that would listen nowhere, and an embedder
+// block with only some of its three paths filled in.
+func (c *Config) validateVoice() error {
+	if c.Voice == nil || !c.Voice.Enabled {
+		return nil
+	}
+	if c.Voice.Bind == "" {
+		return errors.New("voice.enabled set but voice.bind is empty — refusing to start a voice surface with no bind address")
+	}
+	if e := c.Voice.Embedder; e != nil {
+		if e.ModelPath == "" || e.TokenizerPath == "" || e.LibPath == "" {
+			return errors.New("voice.embedder: all three of model_path, tokenizer_path, lib_path must be set, or remove embedder to use the floor stub")
+		}
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
 // VoiceConfig — the client↔core TCP surface + the stt/tts worker-module
 // seams.
 //