so ive been on HF for about two years now mostly doing digital but lately ive been spending more time on SSB phone and i keep getting reports that my audio sounds like im talking through a pillow or theres too much bass or whatever. im running an IC-7300 into a Heil PR-40 which i thought was supposed to be a pretty solid combo, i got the mic because everyone kept recommending it on here and other forums.

ive got the mic gain sitting around 50-60% and the ALC is barely moving, maybe just kissing the bottom of the scale. compression is off. i did read somewhere that the 7300 has some eq built in and maybe i should be messing with that but i honestly havent touched it much, just left it at flat. the reports im getting are from a few different guys on 40m so its not just one person with a bad receiver or whatever.

is this a mic placement thing or do i actually need to dig into the DSP settings? feels like it should just work out of the box with a decent mic but apparently not. any ideas appreciated, been chasing this for like a month

yeah the 7300 out of the box eq is pretty flat which sounds good on paper but the PR-40 already has a lot of low end and that combo can definitely sound muddy especially on 40m where there's already a ton of noise and stations are cranking their bass trying to sound like a broadcast announcer. your instinct to look at the tx eq is right.

what i'd do is pull up the tx equalizer in the menus and start rolling off below about 300hz pretty aggressively, like -6 to -8dB at the lowest shelf. you really dont need anything below 300hz for intelligibility on SSB, its just adding mud and eating into your modulation headroom. then maybe add a little presence around 2-3khz, not a ton, just a dB or two. the goal is to sound punchy and clear not warm and full, that's AM territory.

also make sure you're not talking directly into the capsule on the PR-40, that mic is sensitive enough that off-axis at like a 45 degree angle works better for a lot of voices, reduces the proximity effect. took me an embarrassingly long time to figure that out with mine.

mic placement is definitely worth checking before you go deep into menus honestly. i spent like three weeks tweaking DSP settings on my old 756 pro before i realized i just had the mic too close and was getting all that proximity bass boost. moved it back a few inches and suddenly reports got way better without changing anything in the radio.

also what kind of audio are you monitoring on your end? cause sometimes what sounds fine in your headphones is not what's going out over the air, especially with the 7300's monitor function there can be some processing in the monitor chain that doesnt reflect the actual transmitted signal. if you have a second receiver or a friend nearby who can actually listen thats gonna tell you more than any meter.