so ive had my TS-590SG for going on 6 years now and honestly its been rock solid, no complaints really. but lately ive been eyeballing the IC-7300 just because everyone and their dog seems to have one and the waterfall display looks genuinely useful for contesting and chasing DX. my shack setup is pretty basic — the 590, an LDG tuner, and a dipole in the attic which i know isnt ideal but its what the HOA situation allows.

the thing is i dont actually know if the 7300 would give me anything meaningful over what i have. like on paper the 590 receiver is still really competitive and ive never felt limited by it during field day or whatever. but that touchscreen and spectrum scope on the icom is hard to ignore when youre watching everyone else use it on youtube. anyone actually made this swap and felt like it was worth the money or did you just end up with the same radio experience in a fancier box

honestly i made almost that exact swap about two years ago, went from a 590SG to the 7300 and my take is — its a lateral move more than an upgrade in terms of actual receive performance. the 590 receiver is no joke, kenwood did a really good job with that radio. what you DO get with the 7300 is the panadapter which after a few weeks you absolutely cannot live without, i wont go back to blind tuning. also the direct sampling architecture on the icom feels a little cleaner to me on 40m at night but that might be placebo.

if youre already happy with the 590 and youre working with an attic dipole the bottleneck isnt the radio, just sayin. but if you have the funds and youre going to keep the hobby going for another decade its not a bad move. just dont expect a night and day difference in your actual contacts.

GAS is real and it never goes away lol. i went 590 to 7610 which is maybe overkill but the dual watch on the 7610 is genuinely usefull for running a pileup and monitoring another band at the same time. the 7300 is probably the sweet spot for most people though, great radio for the price. your attic dipole situation is the real limiting factor like the other guy said, no rig upgrade fixes that.