I had some troubles too.... First I had to create the /usr/local/ and local/bin drectory.... I didnt have them for some reason... and the install script didnt create the folders when needed..
Also my empeg freezes when i try to write something to ttsd... Dont know if everything in the installation went as it should.... I just fixed the two folders...
How much time does ttsd need to speak out the frase "Hello world".... without the player executed...

edit: Now I know what the problem was. As i said earlier I didnt have the correct directorys. My solution was to just create them (/usr/local & /usr/local/bin) But that wasnt enough... I didnt get i to work. The reason for this was that I had deleted the preinit script so that the empeg could boot correctly. And then tried to use the same installation folder as before. But the startupscript wasnt left in the installation folder. So that never got installed again... I had to untar everything again.... and then the installation went perfectly.... and now works!!