so ive been chasing decent SSB audio for probably two years now and i feel like i finally have a handle on what actually matters vs what people just say matters. figured id share and see if anyone disagrees because im sure someone will

the mic gain thing is way more important than people give it credit for. i spent months thinking my audio sounded thin because of the radio or the mic and it turned out i was just running the mic gain too hot and clipping the front end of the tx chain. ALC should be barely moving on voice peaks, not slamming. once i got that sorted everything downstream sounded better basically for free

compression is the other one that people seem to either crank all the way up because they want to sound loud or leave off entirely. somewhere in the middle is where the usable range is. too much and you sound like youre calling from inside a tin can, too little and you just disappear into the noise on a marginal path. i run mine at maybe 3-4 on the rig's built-in processor and that seems to work

the thing i still havent totally figured out is whether an outboard processor like a box from Behringer or whatever actually does more than the built in stuff on something like an IC-7300 or if its just snake oil for most contacts. anybody actually done a proper comparison on this not just going by what sounds good to yourself in a monitor

the ALC point is spot on and its honestly the thing i see messed up more than anything else when i help people at club nights. they crank the mic gain until the ALC looks busy and think that means theyre getting more power but they're really just distorting. the finals dont care how hard you hit the audio stage, the power output is whatever the power output is

on the outboard processor question - i went through this a while back and did actual A/B with a buddy on a known good path, him recording both sides. the difference between the 7300's built in stuff and a dbx 286s running into the mic input was real but not dramatic. maybe a point on intelligibility in moderate noise but nothing that would make or break a contact. where i did notice a real difference was the highpass filter on the outboard unit cleaning up low end rumble from the desk, the 7300's own EQ settings kind of smear that area a bit if you're not careful. so maybe not snake oil but probably not worth it unless you already own the gear

yeah the compression thing is real. i made the mistake of listening to myself on the monitor output of my own radio for months and thought i sounded great, then got a recording from someone who recorded off the air and it was pretty rough. the monitor doesnt tell you the whole story because its pre a lot of the processing stages depending on the radio

honestly the best thing i ever did was ask a local guy i trust to just give me honest feedback while i tweaked settings in real time. not glamorous but it works. took about 20 minutes to get somewhere reasonable