diff --git a/cmd/mavend/memoryeval.go b/cmd/mavend/memoryeval.go
index 45016bc..a87666b 100644
--- a/cmd/mavend/memoryeval.go
+++ b/cmd/mavend/memoryeval.go
@@ -29,11 +29,11 @@ import (
 // minutes of evaluation was five minutes of a mute assistant.
 //
 // The background client now yields the slot while a turn is in flight, so the
-// collision is handled where it belongs and this is a prompt budget again.
-// Sixty seconds is long enough for a Thinking model here, and an evaluation cut
-// off costs nothing, because it is retried at the next interval. Raise it if
-// observations start truncating.
-const memoryEvalTimeout = 60 * time.Second
+// collision is solved where it belongs and this is a prompt budget again. Five
+// minutes is safe once more, and it is back: 60s truncated a Thinking model
+// mid-synthesis, which costs an observation for no latency saved. The gate, not
+// this number, is what keeps a voice turn from waiting.
+const memoryEvalTimeout = 5 * time.Minute
 
 // memoryEvalWorker — ticker + evaluator.
 type memoryEvalWorker struct {