A Very Polite Suggestion

[WoollyBee]

The LibriVox community has a wide variety of reading styles; what one person may not like, another person may really enjoy. That is why we have the "Choice of Voice" policy.
'Quality' can be very subjective. For instance:
People like having things read to them in different ways. Some listeners like it when the reader puts on voices and accents to portray the various characters, while others prefer a 'straight' reading.
One person may find a particular timbre of voice unattractive, while another loves it.
Some people dislike accents from other parts of the world, and only like to listen to familiar accents. Or they like to have the accent match the material, e.g. Jane Austen read with a British accent and Joseph Conrad with an American accent.

We cannot start judging recordings on subjective things like accent and reading style -- we simply cannot. There is no accepted norm for these things. There is no one way of reading that is pleasing to everyone. For every listener who likes slow deliberate readings, there is one who prefers a brisk pace. For every listener who likes readings that contain emotion and a lot of inflection, there is another who needs readings to be very plain so that the reader gets out of the way and lets the author's words speak for themselves.

I agree!

[Hobbit]

I want to agree with the thought that whether an accent is a "good" accent is subjective from listener to listener. For example, I once knew of a girl from Germany who was part of a speech and debate club in the US. She paricipated in a big speech event, and after her speech the judges were giving her their feedback. "That was a great speech," they told her, "But you need to drop the accent. It sounds fake."

Please don't take this to mean that I think all accents people hear are really authentic but misjudged like the German girl's. I only mean to say that accents that annoy some listeners may be enjoyed by others. The reader can't possibly know how the listener will take it, so the best the reader can do is make their own decision about whether or not to use an accent, and let the listener take what they will from it.