so ive been on SSB for probably two years now mostly on 40m and 20m and i keep getting reports that my audio sounds kind of muddy or like im talking through a blanket. running an IC-7300 into a basic desk mic that came with some bundle i bought off a guy at the hamfest. the TX EQ in the 7300 is set pretty much flat because i was afraid to mess with it, compression is on but only like 2-3 on the ALC.

ive tried adjusting my mic gain and that helped a little but not enough i think. somebody on the air told me to roll off the bass and boost the mids but i honestly wasnt sure what values they were talking about. is there a general starting point people use for voice EQ on SSB or does it vary that much by mic and by voice? feels like i should be getting cleaner audio out of a radio this capable

the flat EQ thing is almost certainly your problem, or at least a big part of it. SSB doesn't need anywhere near the bass response you'd want for music or even FM — that low end just eats up your power budget and makes you sound boxy. what i do on my 7300 is roll off pretty aggressively below about 200-300 Hz and also cut a little around 400-500 if the voice sounds muddy there, then give a gentle boost somewhere in the 1.5k-2.5k range where speech intelligibility actually lives. the exact curve depends a lot on your voice and mic though, so you kind of have to get someone to give you honest reports while you tweak live.

also that mic from a bundle is probably part of it. not saying you need to go spend $200 on an Heil but a halfway decent dynamic like an SM58 element or even one of the Heil HC-4 capsule mics makes a noticeable difference. the default mics that come bundled with stuff tend to be pretty mediocre honestly.

yeah what he said about the bass. also check if your mic is too close to your mouth — proximity effect on some mics really piles on the low end. i had a similar problem and just backing off like 4-6 inches helped more than i expected. and if you have the 7300 manual handy theres a section on the TX filter settings, you can narrow that bandpass so youre not sending audio outside what actually fits in a SSB passband anyway. wasted TX power otherwise