Six phoneticians rated the voices of twenty-six American and twenty-two German speakers on nine voice quality parameters which were discussed and illustrated by tape-recorded examples before the rating sessions. A reliability analysis showed highly significant interrater agreement on most parameters. Intercorrelations of the expert ratings and correlations with lay ratings of voice are reported and discussed. In concluding, empirical voice-personality relationships are reported and the role of sociocultural and attributional factors in this area is discussed.