so ive been on 20m a lot lately and a few people have mentioned my audio sounds kind of harsh or processed, one guy said it sounded like i was in a tin can which is not great. im running an IC-7300 into a Heil PR-40 and i thought that combo was supposed to be pretty solid. i do have the TX equalizer turned on and i tweaked it a while back trying to cut some low end but maybe i went too far with it.

also not sure if the compression is an issue, i have the speech compressor on and its set to like 8 which i think is in the middle of the range. never really tested it properly just kind of guessed at a setting. the mic gain is probably around 50-60 on the radio. im generally getting decent signal reports on the meter but the audio quality comments are bugging me.

is there a standard starting point people use for the TX eq and compressor on the 7300 or is it really just trial and error with a different radio on the other end monitoring you? i dont have a second radio to do a proper monitor test so that makes it harder

yeah the compressor at 8 on the 7300 is probably your main culprit honestly. i run mine at 3-4 max and even that adds a noticeable edge when you push it. the thing with SSB compression is a little goes a long way and past a certain point youre just adding distortion products that splatter into adjacent frequencies and sound terrible on the receiving end even if your ALC looks fine on your own display.

for the TX eq i found a decent baseline is cutting around 100hz by a couple db to clean up the low end rumble and then maybe a slight boost around 2.5-3khz for presence but nothing dramatic. the PR-40 already has a pretty good midrange response so you dont need to push it that hard. honestly the best thing to do if you can swing it is get on echolink or something and record yourself, or ask a friend on a nearby repeater to give you an honest listen while you talk. club members are usually willing to help with that kind of thing if you explain what youre trying to do.

mic placement matters way more than people think with the PR-40. if youre talking straight into the front of it too close youre gonna get a ton of proximity effect which makes the bass boom and then when the eq tries to cut it things get weird. i had a similar problem and just moving the mic slightly off axis cleaned it up a lot before i even touched the radio settings.