so ive been chasing decent TX audio for a while now and wanted to get some thoughts from people who actually spend time on SSB phone. i run an IC-7300 into a Heil PR-40 and for a while i thought that was enough to just sound good out of the box but it really isnt, at least not without messing with the TX EQ and the compression settings.

what finally helped me was backing off the compression a lot. i had it cranked because i figured more compression = more punch = people can hear me better but honestly it was just making me sound like garbage on the other end. a guy in a net told me i sounded like i was calling from inside a tin can and that was kind of the wake up call. dropped the compression way down, maybe 2-3 dB of actual reduction, and suddenly people started commenting that my audio sounded clean.

the other thing i changed was mic gain. i was peaking the ALC way too hard thinking that was normal. turns out you want the ALC barely moving on voice peaks, not slammed. once i got that sorted the whole thing came together. still tweaking the TX bandwidth filter but thats a whole other rabbit hole.

curious what other people have found makes the biggest actual difference on SSB audio - mic choice, EQ settings, compression, something else? and does anyone bother with an outboard processor or is that overkill for most operating?

the ALC thing is huge and nobody talks about it enough. i see guys all the time who think pegging the ALC is what youre supposed to do and its just not. the ALC on most rigs is a protection circuit not a level indicator, so when its slammed youre basically distorting the hell out of your transmitted signal even if the audio sounds ok in the shack.

i went through basically the same thing with my 7300 a couple years back. what worked for me was using the built in monitor function to actually listen to what im sending, through headphones, while adjusting. its kind of a pain to set up but you hear exactly what the other station is hearing and its sometimes pretty brutal. i had this low end boominess i never knew about until i listened that way. rolled off some of the bass on the TX EQ and it cleaned up a lot.

as for outboard processors - i have an old Behringer that i messed with for a while but honestly for normal SSB contacts it was more trouble than it was worth. maybe if you're doing a lot of contesting or you really care about audio quality on roundtables it makes sense but for everyday use the 7300s internal stuff is pretty capable if you set it up right.

mic placement is the thing i never see people mention. doesnt matter how good your PR-40 is if youre talking across the room or directly into it at full blast. that mic has a pretty tight proximity effect so if youre close you get a lot of low end buildup which sounds great for podcasting maybe but for SSB it just muddies everything up and eats into your intelligibility.

i run mine about 6-8 inches off to the side, not directly in front, and it made a noticeable difference. also worth checking if youre getting any room reflections bouncing back into the mic - shacks can be pretty reflective with all the hard surfaces and equipment around.

the bandwidth filter thing you mentioned at the end is worth spending time on. i usually run somewhere around 2.4 to 2.7k for most contacts, narrower if the band is crowded. going too wide just lets in more noise on both ends.