so ive been running SSB on 40m for a few months now and i keep getting reports that my audio sounds either too bassy or like im talking through a cardboard box. im using a stock mic that came with the radio (its a Yaesu FT-891) and i havent touched the EQ settings really at all. a few guys on the local net have been patient enough to give me honest feedback and the consensus is it just sounds kinda muffled.

i did read somewhere that the default mic gain on a lot of these radios is set way too hot out of the box and youre supposed to dial it back and then let the speech processor or compressor do more of the lifting, but honestly im not totally sure i understand the right way to do that without just making things worse. also someone told me to look into the bandwidth settings, something about 2.4kHz being too narrow or too wide for voice i cant remember which. anyone dealt with this and figured out a decent starting point for SSB audio on this radio or just in general?

yeah the stock mics on pretty much every radio ive ever owned are kind of an afterthought, the FT-891 one isnt bad but the default eq curve is pretty middy and doesnt translate great on the air. first thing i always do is pull the mic gain back to maybe 50-60% and actually watch the ALC meter while youre talking at your normal voice level — you want the ALC just barely flickering, not pegged. if its bouncing hard the whole time youre already compressing too aggressively before the speech processor even gets a chance to do anything useful.

on the bandwidth thing — 2.4kHz is actually pretty standard for SSB and fine for most conditions. some guys go wider like 2.8 or even 3.0 when the band is clean and they want more presence, but on 40m with QRM i usually stay at 2.4 or even drop to 1.8 if its crowded. the muffled sound though is almost certainly mic gain and maybe the treble rolloff in the radio's DSP, try bumping the high shelf a bit in the parametric EQ if your radio has that menu. Yaesu buries it in the menus but its in there.

i had the exact same problem on my 857 for like a year before someone at a hamfest just handed me a Heil headset and i never looked back. not saying you have to spend money but the element in those aftermarket mics is genuinely tuned for voice comms in a way the stock ones just arent. the HC-5 element in particular cuts some of that low end mud and helps your voice punch through without sounding harsh. anyway thats my two cents, the gain tip above is solid though, definitely start there before buying anything.