so ive been running SSB on 40m mostly and keep getting reports that my audio is thin or sounds distant, like im in a tunnel or something. im running an IC-7300 into a dipole, nothing fancy but it should work fine. i set the mic gain where the ALC is just barely moving and i thought that was right but maybe not?

a buddy of mine said my TX audio sounds compressed to hell and another guy said it was fine so im getting conflicting reports which is super annoying. i do have the bass and treble sliders in the radio messed around with a bit but i honestly cant remember what i changed them to. also using the stock heil mic that came in a bundle i bought used so not sure if thats been configured for this radio or not.

anyone have a baseline setup for the 7300 SSB audio they actually like? or general tips on what to listen for when checking your own audio? i cant really monitor myself obviously so its hard to know whats going on.

the ALC thing is a really common misconception honestly. you dont want the ALC barely moving, you want it moving but not slamming into the red on voice peaks. if its barely moving you might actually be underdriving the finals and your signal sounds weak. try turning mic gain up until the ALC is hitting maybe 2/3 of the way on peaks and see if that helps.

also the eq settings on the 7300 are pretty aggressive when they get misconfigured. i'd reset those to flat and start over. the default tx bandwidth on that radio is also narrower than you might expect, worth checking if someone set it to 1.8khz or something. i run mine at 2.4 and roll off a little bass because the stock mic is kinda boomy on some voices. the other thing worth doing is getting on echolink or something and actually listening to yourself, its the only way to really know whats happening.

yeah conflicting audio reports are the worst, half the time the guy giving you a bad report has terrible speakers on his end anyway so you never really know. that said the Heil mics definitely have different elements and if yours came from a bundle it might have the wrong element for your voice or for that radio. some of them are super presence-heavy which sounds great on AM but on SSB it can make you sound harsh. worth looking up which element is in it.