so ive had the IC-7300 for about three years now and honestly its been a great radio, no complaints really, but lately ive been doing more CW contesting and i keep running into situations where i wish i had tighter roofing filters. the 7300 does ok but the DSP can only do so much when there's a pileup next door running 100 watts and i'm trying to pull out a weak station 200hz away.

been looking at the IC-7610 mostly because of the dual watch and the supposedly better front end, also looked at the Elecraft K4 but that's a pretty big jump in price and im not sure my operating justifies it. someone at the club also mentioned the FTDX10 but i havent heard much about how it actually performs in a crowded band vs on paper.

anyone made a similar jump and actually noticed a real difference on the air, not just in the specs? my antenna situation is decent — 3 element yagi on 20 and a fan dipole for the low bands so its not like im fighting a bad antenna, the radio is genuinely the limiting factor here i think.

went from the 7300 to the 7610 about 18 months ago and the difference in a contest environment is pretty noticeable. the dual receivers alone are worth something if you're doing SO2R lite or just want to monitor another band passively. the roofing filter situation is better but its not night and day honest. what i noticed more was the overall receiver feel during heavy QRM — things that used to blur together sort of stayed more distinct if that makes sense.

the FTDX10 i borrowed from a buddy for a weekend and i wasnt blown away. its a solid radio and the 300hz roofing filter helps on CW but the menus drove me crazy coming from Icom. probably a me problem but still. if the 7610 is in your budget i'd go that route, you already know the UI and it's a real step up where it counts.

the K4 is worth every penny if you do serious CW work but yeah the price is what it is. i justified mine after running CQ WW and just getting killed trying to run a frequency on 15. theres a difference between a radio that handles adjacent signal rejection in hardware vs one doing it after the fact in DSP and you feel it when conditions are rough. that said most people would probably be happy with the 7610 and have money left over for an amp or better feedline or whatever.