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We present a novel technique for time-compressing speech, semantic compression, which uses an ASR transcript to determine which elements of the speech are presented. We carried out an exploratory user study comparing semantic compression to other novel types of time-compression techniques. We found that users feel they have a greater understanding of recordings compressed using semantic techniques than those compressed using acoustic-based techniques. An approach of using high playback speeds to indicate the location of 'insignificant' speech is not favoured by listeners, who prefer to have such segments removed from recordings.