so ive been running SSB for about two years now and i feel like my transmitted audio is just never quite right. people tell me im readable but that my audio sounds kind of thin or tinny, and one guy on 40m last week told me i sounded like i was talking through a cardboard tube which... great.

my setup is an IC-7300 with the stock mic, heil PR-40 on order but havent gotten it yet. im running the mic gain somewhere around 50% and the RF power at like 80 watts. compression is on but i honestly dont know if ive set it correctly, i kind of just left it where it was from the factory.

i know the 7300 has that parametric EQ built in and ive poked at it a few times but never really dialed it in. is that where most people focus their efforts or is it more about the physical mic placement, the compression settings, what? im starting to wonder if the stock mic is just that bad and if i should be borrowing someones audio setup to test before the heil shows up.

also does anyone actually monitor their own transmitted audio and if so how, because thats another thing i feel like i should be doing but dont really know how to set up properly.

the stock mic on the 7300 isnt terrible but its not great either, and yeah the default EQ settings are kind of optimized for whatever Icom thought sounded good which doesnt necessarily match your voice. first thing id do is actually record yourself — just use the monitor function or plug a recorder into your audio chain and listen back, most people are shocked how different they sound compared to what they think.

for the parametric EQ on the 7300 a lot of guys find that boosting slightly around 2-3kHz and rolling off some of the low end below maybe 200Hz cleans up the audio a lot for SSB. the bandwidth on SSB is limited anyway so having too much bass just eats into your modulation without adding intelligibility. compression is worth setting properly too — the 7300's built in ALC meter is your friend there, you want peaks hitting maybe 2/3 of the way up, not slamming all the way.

the Heil will make a noticeable difference though, especially that PR-40, it has a tighter pattern so it's more forgiving about room noise and it just has a better midrange presence for voice.

one thing that helped me a lot was getting a buddy a couple miles away to give me an honest signal report while i tweaked things in real time. like actually have him tell you what changed when you adjust mic gain or the EQ, not just asking on a net where people usually just say you sound fine because they dont want to make it awkward. found out i had way too much compression and it was causing that pumping sound on my audio that i couldnt hear on my end at all.