diff --git a/rbutil/rbutilqt/rbutilqt.pro b/rbutil/rbutilqt/rbutilqt.pro
index 4b170cd01e..e705497b1e 100644
--- a/rbutil/rbutilqt/rbutilqt.pro
+++ b/rbutil/rbutilqt/rbutilqt.pro
@@ -28,8 +28,11 @@ RBBASE_DIR = $$replace(RBBASE_DIR,/rbutil/rbutilqt,)
 message("Rockbox Base dir: "$$RBBASE_DIR)
 
 # check for system speex. Add a custom rule for pre-building librbspeex if not found.
-LIBSPEEX = $$system(pkg-config --libs speex)
-!static:!isEmpty(LIBSPEEX) {
+LIBSPEEX = $$system(pkg-config --silence-errors --libs speex)
+!static:!isEmpty(LIBSPEEX)
+    # newer versions of speex are split up into libspeex and libspeexdsp.
+    # avoid checking twice if libspeex is missing.
+    LIBSPEEX += $$system(pkg-config --silence-errors --libs speexdsp)
     LIBS += $$LIBSPEEX
 }
 !mac {
diff --git a/tools/rbspeex/Makefile b/tools/rbspeex/Makefile
index 8c46677ce8..87ce08f3e7 100644
--- a/tools/rbspeex/Makefile
+++ b/tools/rbspeex/Makefile
@@ -33,7 +33,10 @@ endif
 
 # don't try to use the systems libspeex when building a static binary.
 ifndef STATIC
-SYS_SPEEX = $(shell pkg-config --libs speex)
+SYS_SPEEX = $(shell pkg-config --silence-errors --libs speex)
+ifneq ($(SYS_SPEEX),)
+SYS_SPEEX += $(shell pkg-config --silence-errors --libs speexdsp)
+endif
 endif
 
 # fall back to our own librbspeex if no suitable found.