diff --git a/ultravox/data/datasets.py b/ultravox/data/datasets.py
index b3015a2..ba82c86 100644
--- a/ultravox/data/datasets.py
+++ b/ultravox/data/datasets.py
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
 
 from ultravox.data import text_proc
 
+AUDIO_PLACEHOLDER = "<|audio|>"
 SAMPLE_RATE = 16000
 
 # TODO(juberti): set these in the environment so they don't need to be hard-coded here.
@@ -36,7 +37,6 @@
 
 class DatasetSplit(str, enum.Enum):
     TRAIN = "train"
-    TEST = "test"
     VALIDATION = "validation"
 
 
@@ -81,6 +81,9 @@ def __post_init__(self):
 
 @dataclasses.dataclass
 class DatasetConfig(helpers.Serializable):
+    # Note that subclasses can override any of these fields, but they currently can't
+    # extend structured fields like splits or user_template_args.
+    # See _merge_configs below for the current implementation.
     name: str
     """Name of the dataset."""
     base: Optional[str] = None
@@ -110,7 +113,7 @@ def __post_init__(self):
         """Set defaults only if this is a root config, so that said defaults in a subclass don't act as overrides."""
         DEFAULTS = {
             "splits": [],
-            "user_template": "<|audio|>",
+            "user_template": AUDIO_PLACEHOLDER,
             "user_template_args": {},
             "assistant_template": "{{text}}",
             "transcript_template": "{{text}}",
@@ -486,7 +489,6 @@ def _get_sample(self, row) -> Optional[VoiceSample]:
                 **row,
                 text_proc=text_proc,
                 dataset=self,
-                include_audio=self._args.include_audio,
                 **self._config.user_template_args,
             )
             assistant_content = jinja2.Template(
@@ -504,11 +506,31 @@ def _get_sample(self, row) -> Optional[VoiceSample]:
             raise ValueError(
                 "Template rendering failed. Make sure all keys in the template exist in the sample."
             ) from e
+        if not self._args.include_audio:
+            user_content = user_content.replace(AUDIO_PLACEHOLDER, f'"{transcript}"')
+        messages = _get_messages(user_content, assistant_content)
+        audio = self._get_audio(row, self._config.audio_field)
+        return self._make_sample(messages, audio, audio_transcript=transcript)
+
+
+class LibriSpeechDummyDataset(VoiceDataset):
+    def __init__(self, args: VoiceDatasetArgs) -> None:
+        super().__init__(args)
+        # This dataset doesn't support streaming.
+        dataset = self._load_hf_dataset(
+            "hf-internal-testing/librispeech_asr_dummy",
+            "clean",
+            split="validation",
+            streaming=False,
+        )
+        self._init_dataset(dataset, 73)
 
+    def _get_sample(self, row: transformers.BatchFeature) -> Optional[VoiceSample]:
+        text = text_proc.format_asr_text(row["text"])
         return self._make_sample(
-            _get_messages(user_content, assistant_content),
-            self._get_audio(row, self._config.audio_field),
-            audio_transcript=transcript,
+            self._make_messages(f"Transcribe\n{AUDIO_PLACEHOLDER}", text),
+            self._get_audio(row, "audio"),
+            audio_transcript=text,
         )
 
 
@@ -635,10 +657,10 @@ def __len__(self):
 
 
 CONTINUATION_USER_TEMPLATE = (
-    "Continue the following text using less than 50 words:\n\n<|audio|>"
+    f"Continue the following text using less than 50 words:\n\n{AUDIO_PLACEHOLDER}"
 )
 CONTINUATION_ASSISTANT_TEMPLATE = "{{continuation}}"
-TRANSCRIPTION_USER_TEMPLATE = "Transcribe\n<|audio|>"
+TRANSCRIPTION_USER_TEMPLATE = f"Transcribe\n{AUDIO_PLACEHOLDER}"
 
 BOOLQ_CONFIG = DatasetConfig(
     name="boolq",
@@ -647,7 +669,7 @@ def __len__(self):
         DatasetSplitConfig(name="train", num_samples=10000),
         DatasetSplitConfig(name="validation", num_samples=1000),
     ],
-    user_template="{{passage}}\n\n{{'<|audio|>' if include_audio else question}}",
+    user_template="{{passage}}\n\n{AUDIO_PLACEHOLDER}",
     assistant_template="{{'True' if answer else 'False'}}",
     transcript_template="{{question}}",
 )
@@ -770,6 +792,19 @@ def __len__(self):
     ],
 )
 
+# SODA_CONFIG = DatasetConfig(
+#     name="soda",
+#     path="fixie-ai/soda-audio",
+#     splits=[
+#         DatasetSplitConfig(name="train", num_samples=1_000_000),
+#         DatasetSplitConfig(name="validation", num_samples=10_000),
+#     ],
+#     # Need way to specify message history.
+#     audio_field="audio_second_last_turn",
+#     assistant_template="{{alt_last_turn}}",
+#     transcript_template="{{turns[-2]}}",
+# )
+
 VP_EN_CONFIG = DatasetConfig(
     name="voxpopuli-en",
     path="facebook/voxpopuli",
@@ -991,6 +1026,8 @@ def _merge_configs(configs: List[DatasetConfig]) -> DatasetConfig:
 
 
 def create_dataset(name: str, args: VoiceDatasetArgs) -> SizedIterableDataset:
+    if name == "dummy":
+        return LibriSpeechDummyDataset(args)
     assert name in DATASET_MAP, f"Unknown dataset: {name}"
     # Make a list of configs from root->base.
     configs: List[DatasetConfig] = []
diff --git a/ultravox/data/datasets_test.py b/ultravox/data/datasets_test.py
index 193453f..245aac3 100644
--- a/ultravox/data/datasets_test.py
+++ b/ultravox/data/datasets_test.py
@@ -308,6 +308,24 @@ def test_generic_dataset_custom_templates():
     assert sample.audio_transcript == "0"
 
 
+def test_generic_dataset_text_only():
+    config = datasets.DatasetConfig(
+        name="fake_dataset",
+        path="fake_path",
+        splits=[datasets.DatasetSplitConfig(name="fake", num_samples=5)],
+        user_template="Transcribe\n<|audio|>",
+    )
+    ds = FakeGenericDataset(5, config, datasets.VoiceDatasetArgs(include_audio=False))
+    assert len(ds) == 5
+    sample = next(iter(ds))
+    assert isinstance(sample, datasets.VoiceSample)
+    assert sample.messages == [
+        {"role": "user", "content": 'Transcribe\n"0"'},
+        {"role": "assistant", "content": "0"},
+    ]
+    assert sample.audio is None
+
+
 def test_generic_dataset_merge_configs():
     base_config = datasets.DatasetConfig(
         name="fake_base",