so ive been messing with my audio chain for the past few weeks and honestly i cant tell anymore if the changes im making are actually doing anything or if im just convincing myself its better. running an IC-7300 into a Heil PR-40 with their interface box, and ive been tweaking the TX equalizer settings in the radio trying to get something that sounds good without going full broadcast-y, which apparently everyone hates on HF

the thing that got me started was someone on 14.225 telling me i sounded like i was in a tin can. i had the microphone gain cranked up because i thought more gain = better audio, which, yeah, i know now that was wrong. turned it down quite a bit and ran the ALC meter so it's barely moving on voice peaks and that helped a lot apparently. got a couple good reports after that

but now im second guessing the EQ settings. ive been boosting a bit in the 2-3kHz range because i read somewhere that presence boost helps intelligibility. is that actually true on SSB or is it more of a studio mixing thing that doesnt really translate? also wondering if the compressor/processor in the 7300 is worth using or if i should just leave it off. some guys swear by it, some guys say it makes you sound awful. cant figure out who's right

anyone with actual experience here, not just repeating what they read on eham

the tin can thing is almost always too much high frequency or mic too close, not really an EQ problem per se. and yeah the gain/ALC thing trips up a lot of people — the 7300 especially tends to run hot on mic gain out of the box, icom sets it that way for some reason

on the presence boost question, theres actually something to it for voice intelligibility, the 2-4kHz range is where a lot of consonant energy lives so boosting there can help cut through noise. but SSB passband is already pretty narrow so you dont have a ton of room to play before it starts sounding honky or harsh. i usually keep any boost pretty gentle, like 3-4dB max, and actually cut some of the low mids around 300-500Hz if the mic has a lot of chest resonance

the compressor in the 7300 is decent but easy to overdo. i run mine at maybe 20-30% and that's probably enough to help on fading and varying mic distance without making it sound processed. anything past 50% and people start noticing and not in a good way. the trick is to set it and then not touch it, because you start chasing your tail pretty quick

honestly the best thing i ever did for my SSB audio was just ask a buddy to give me an honest report on 40m during the day when conditions were mediocre. not a signal report, like an actual audio quality report. most people wont tell you unless you ask directly and even then they sugarcoat it

the EQ stuff is real but i think mic placement and gain staging matters way more before you start reaching for that. also worth checking if you have any RF getting into the audio chain because that can sound like all kinds of weird stuff and you'd never guess thats the cause