so ive been getting reports for a while now that my audio on SSB sounds kind of muddy or muffled, one guy on 40m last week said it sounded like i was talking through a pillow. im running an IC-7300 with the stock mic and i havent really touched the audio settings much since i got it a couple years ago. i set up a frequency offset once and thats about it.

i know the 7300 has a ton of EQ options in the menu but honestly i never dug into them because the manual is kind of overwhelming. i also read somewhere that SSB audio benefits from a bit of a mid-range boost and cutting some of the low end because the low frequencies just eat up power without actually helping intelligibility. not sure if thats true or just something someone made up on reddit.

also my mic gain is probably set too high, ive been told that before. but i dont know what level to set it at without actually being able to hear myself. is there a way to monitor that on the radio itself or do i need a second receiver to check? genuinely unsure how people dial this stuff in without spending hours on the air annoying everyone while they tune their audio.

the low end thing is absolutely true, cutting below maybe 200-300hz on SSB makes a noticeable difference in intelligibility, especially on a crowded band. the IC-7300 has a TX bandwidth filter in the menus, i think its under Set > Tone > TX Bass Cut or something like that, been a while since i poked around in there. you can also use the parametric EQ in the radio to notch out some of the boominess.

for mic gain, what i do is watch the ALC meter while talking at normal conversational volume. you want the ALC just barely moving, like occasionally kissing the edge of the ALC zone. if its pegging or staying pinned the whole time youre way too hot and youre going to have splatter and compression artifacts that sound like garbage on the other end. the stock mic on the 7300 actually isnt bad but people tend to drive it too hard. get someone on a repeater or a local friend on HF to give you audio reports while you adjust in real time, thats really the only way to do it properly.

yeah the pillow thing usually means either too much low frequency or the mic is too close to your face and youre getting proximity effect. i had the same problem and it turned out i was basically eating the mic. moved it back like 6 inches and it helped a lot. also had the TX bandwidth set to wide for no real reason, narrowing it up cleaned things up a lot on the recieving end apparently.