so ive been running SSB on 40m mostly, some 20m, for about two years now and i keep getting reports that my audio is muddy or bassy or just kinda hard to copy. Im running an IC-7300 into a Heil PR-40 which from what i understand should be a pretty solid combo. I've got the mic gain set around 50% and the RF power at about 80 watts into a dipole at 35 feet.

the thing is i hear other guys on the band who sound absolutely crisp and punchy and i have no idea what theyre doing differently. ive messed with the bass and treble in the radio's menu a bit but honestly i dont really know what im doing in there. someone told me to cut the bass and boost the mids but that felt wrong to me. is there a good starting point for the audio settings on the 7300 specifically or just SSB in general? also wondering if mic positioning matters as much as people say because i see some guys with the mic practically touching their lips and others who hold it a foot away

yeah the PR-40 is a great mic but its a broadcast mic really, it has a lot of low end presence that sounds great for podcasting but on SSB it just eats up your passband with stuff below 300hz that nobody can hear anyway. the 7300 has a parametric EQ and a TX bandwidth setting and those are the two things you want to focus on first.

what i do is set the TX bandwidth to around 2.8khz — you dont need the full 3khz and tightening it up a little helps. then in the tone menu i cut the bass shelf pretty aggressively, like -4 to -6db below 400hz. the mids around 1.5-2khz are where voice intelligibility actually lives so you can leave those flat or bump them slightly. also the compressor in the 7300 is actually usable, a little P-COMP goes a long way for punchiness without making you sound like youre calling from the moon. mic distance with a dynamic like the PR-40 you want it maybe 2-3 inches and talking slightly off axis helps cut some of that proximity effect bass buildup

I ran into the same thing for ages before somebody on a net finally just told me straight — too much low end and not enough high mid is what makes voice comms sound muddy. everything this other guy said about the bass cut is right. one thing id add is just get on the air with somebody you trust and have them give you honest reports while you tweak in real time, way faster than guessing in the shack. also ALC is something people forget about, if your ALC is pegging constantly youre introducing all kinds of distortion that no amount of EQ is gonna fix. watch that meter while youre speaking normally and if its slamming try backing off the mic gain first before touching anything else