The present invention relates to a suppression device for an arrangement for the transmission of audio signals, in particular uttered speech, having: an echo reduction unit (4), which is arranged between an input channel (1) for receiving an input audio signal (A1) coming from a remote end and an output channel (5) for outputting an output audio signal (A2), for suppressing an echo signal contained in the output audio signal (A2), a speech activity detection unit (7) for detecting a speech signal contained in the input audio signal (A1), and, a control unit (6) for setting an echo suppression factor(s) of the echo reduction unit (4) for echo suppression. In order to improve in such a device the quality of the speech signal coming from the near end and at the same time to effectively suppress echoes, while at the same time also keeping echo suppression lowest possible, there is proposed according to the invention to design the control unit (6) in such a way that the echo suppression factor (s) is reduced gradually and continuously from a high echo suppression value set while a speech signal is present in the input audio signal (A1) to a low echo suppression value if the speech activity detection unit (7) detects that the input audio signal (A1) does not contain any speech signal.