diff --git a/src/lotus/lotusDenoiseProcessor.test.ts b/src/lotus/lotusDenoiseProcessor.test.ts
index 5a8a1cad..b3b1c462 100644
--- a/src/lotus/lotusDenoiseProcessor.test.ts
+++ b/src/lotus/lotusDenoiseProcessor.test.ts
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ import { type AudioProcessorOptions } from "livekit-client";
 import {
   assertModuleExport,
   type LotusDenoiseConfig,
+  normalizeDfnModelBytes,
   LotusDenoiseProcessor,
   prepareDenoiseAssets,
   releasePreparedDenoiseAssets,
@@ -245,3 +246,37 @@ describe("assertModuleExport (#26)", () => {
     );
   });
 });
+
+describe("normalizeDfnModelBytes", () => {
+  const tar = (): Uint8Array => {
+    const b = new Uint8Array(1024);
+    b.set(new TextEncoder().encode("ustar"), 257);
+    b.set(new TextEncoder().encode("model.onnx"), 0);
+    return b;
+  };
+  const gunzip = async (buf: ArrayBuffer): Promise<Uint8Array> =>
+    new Uint8Array(
+      await new Response(
+        new Response(buf).body!.pipeThrough(new DecompressionStream("gzip")),
+      ).arrayBuffer(),
+    );
+
+  test("passes a gzipped model through untouched", async () => {
+    const gz = new Uint8Array([0x1f, 0x8b, 8, 0, 1, 2, 3]).buffer;
+    expect(await normalizeDfnModelBytes(gz)).toBe(gz);
+  });
+
+  test("re-gzips a tar that a Content-Encoding server already unpacked", async () => {
+    const out = await normalizeDfnModelBytes(tar().buffer as ArrayBuffer);
+    const u8 = new Uint8Array(out);
+    expect([u8[0], u8[1]]).toEqual([0x1f, 0x8b]);
+    expect(await gunzip(out)).toEqual(tar());
+  });
+
+  test("rejects anything else (e.g. an HTML error page)", async () => {
+    const html = new TextEncoder().encode("<!doctype html><title>404</title>");
+    await expect(
+      normalizeDfnModelBytes(html.buffer as ArrayBuffer),
+    ).rejects.toThrow(/neither gzip nor tar/);
+  });
+});
diff --git a/src/lotus/lotusDenoiseProcessor.ts b/src/lotus/lotusDenoiseProcessor.ts
index 1f63385d..a8499388 100644
--- a/src/lotus/lotusDenoiseProcessor.ts
+++ b/src/lotus/lotusDenoiseProcessor.ts
@@ -144,6 +144,8 @@ interface DfnCore {
   initialize: () => Promise<void>;
   createAudioWorkletNode: (ctx: AudioContext) => Promise<AudioNode>;
   destroy: () => void;
+  /** Set by `initialize()`; the model bytes are handed to the worklet as-is. */
+  assets?: { wasmModule: WebAssembly.Module; modelBytes: ArrayBuffer } | null;
 }
 interface DfnModule {
   DeepFilterNet3Core: new (opts: {
@@ -167,6 +169,33 @@ export function assertModuleExport<T>(
   return mod as T;
 }
 
+/**
+ * Make sure the DeepFilterNet model is the gzipped tarball its wasm expects.
+ *
+ * A server or proxy that sends the `.tar.gz` with `Content-Encoding: gzip`
+ * (vite preview does; some CDNs and nginx `gzip_static` setups do too) makes
+ * `fetch()` hand back the inner tar. The library's worklet then fails inside
+ * `df_create`, swallows the error and passes the raw mic straight through,
+ * while we report DeepFilterNet as active. An already-decompressed tar is
+ * re-gzipped; anything else throws, so the rnnoise fallback runs and the host
+ * is told the truth.
+ */
+export async function normalizeDfnModelBytes(
+  bytes: ArrayBuffer,
+): Promise<ArrayBuffer> {
+  const u8 = new Uint8Array(bytes);
+  if (u8.length > 2 && u8[0] === 0x1f && u8[1] === 0x8b) return bytes;
+  const isTar =
+    u8.length > 262 &&
+    String.fromCharCode(...u8.subarray(257, 262)) === "ustar";
+  if (!isTar)
+    throw new Error(
+      `denoise: DeepFilterNet model is neither gzip nor tar (${u8.length} bytes)`,
+    );
+  const gz = new Response(u8).body!.pipeThrough(new CompressionStream("gzip"));
+  return new Response(gz).arrayBuffer();
+}
+
 async function loadDfnCore(config: LotusDenoiseConfig): Promise<DfnCore> {
   const base = config.assetBase;
   const url = `${base}deepfilternet/index.esm.js`;
@@ -185,6 +214,10 @@ async function loadDfnCore(config: LotusDenoiseConfig): Promise<DfnCore> {
     assetConfig: { cdnUrl: dfnBase },
   });
   await core.initialize();
+  if (core.assets)
+    core.assets.modelBytes = await normalizeDfnModelBytes(
+      core.assets.modelBytes,
+    );
   return core;
 }