so ive been on HF for about 8 months now and mostly just listened but ive been transmitting more on 40m SSB lately and a few guys have told me my audio sounds "processed" or like im in a barrel. im using an IC-7300 which i know has a ton of EQ and compression options built in and i think thats the problem, i probably messed with stuff i shouldnt have

what are the best practices for SSB audio on that radio? i turned on the TX equalizer at some point trying to make it sound better and i think i may have gone too far. also not sure if my mic gain is set right. i have the ALC bouncing around a lot which i read somewhere is bad but im not totally sure why

the mic is just the stock HM-219 that came with it. should i be looking at a different mic or is it more about the settings? any help appreciated, dont want to be the guy people groan at when they hear me on freq

ALC constantly slamming is almost always the issue, yeah. what you want is the ALC barely touching, like just kissing the top of the range when you're talking at normal voice levels. if its bouncing all over the place you've got the mic gain too high and the radio is fighting itself trying to control the output. back the mic gain down until the ALC is more like a gentle nudge than a full workout and youll notice the audio clean up right away.

on the TX equalizer - the default flat setting on the 7300 is actually pretty decent for most voices. the built in compression (the SSB TX monitor thing) is useful but a lot of new guys stack the compressor AND crank the eq AND max the mic gain and then wonder why they sound like theyre calling from inside a tin can. pick one thing, not all three. i'd reset to defaults first and then just set the mic gain properly before touching anything else. the 7300 manual actually has a decent section on this if you can stand reading manuals.

the stock mic on the 7300 isnt terrible honestly but i swapped mine for an Heil PR-781 after about a year and the difference was noticeable, people started commenting that i sounded a lot cleaner. that said im pretty sure my problem before was also settings not just the mic so probably do what the other guy said and get your gain structure sorted first before spending money

one thing that helped me was using the built in monitor on the 7300 with headphones so you can actually hear roughly what you sound like on transmit. its not perfect but at least you can tell if youre clipping or if somethings obviously wrong