so ive had this radio for maybe three weeks now and figured id share some impressions since i spent like two months reading every thread i could find before buying it. came from an old FT-450D which served me well but the waterfall on that thing is basically useless compared to what icom did with the 7300.

first thing i noticed is the touchscreen is actually responsive, like i was expecting it to be laggy or whatever but its genuinely snappy. the real time spectrum scope is just... i dont know, its addictive. i find myself watching it more than actually operating sometimes which is probably a problem.

audio out of the box sounded a little harsh to me on SSB receive, spent some time in the menu tweaking the treble rolloff and the passband and its much better now. transmit audio reports have been really good, people keep asking what mic im using and its just the HM-219 that came in the box which surprised me.

only gripe so far is the fan kicks on pretty aggressively at 100w. not a dealbreaker indoors but if youre in a quiet room it notices. also the menu system is deep, like genuinely deep, i keep finding settings i didnt know existed.

anyway if anyones on the fence about this vs the 7610 or even waiting for something else, happy to answer questions. just my two cents from a fairly casual HF op who mainly does 40 and 20m SSB with some digital thrown in.

yeah the fan thing on the 7300 at full power caught me off guard too when i first got mine. i usually run 50-60w for most contacts and it stays pretty quiet at that level, only really spins up when im doing FT8 and hammering it for a contest or something. the duty cycle on digital modes is what really makes it work hard.

the scope really does change how you operate honestly. i started noticing openings on 15m that i would have just missed before because id never have bothered to check. now i just glance at it between overs and you can see a pileup forming in real time which is kinda cool.

one thing worth doing if you havent already — look up the community firmware modifications, not third party stuff but just the settings people have found for flattening the rx audio response. made a noticeable difference for me on crowded 40m evenings.

I went through the same debate last year, was looking at the 7300 vs holding out for a used 7610 at a reasonable price. Ended up with the 7300 and honestly for what I do — mostly ragchewing on 75m and some CW on 40 — it's way more radio than I need in the best possible way. The dual watch function took me a while to get my head around but once it clicked it's super useful.

Your point about the menu depth is real. I was like six months in before I found the adjustments for the AGC decay timing and that made a pretty big difference for CW. Not criticizing the radio at all just saying dont assume youve found everything even after you think you have.