so ive been running SSB for about two years now mostly on 40 and 20 meters and i keep getting reports that my audio is either too bassy, muddy, or just generally hard to copy. im running an IC-7300 which i know is a solid radio and the mic is the stock HM-219 that came with it. i talked to a guy last week who said my audio sounded like i was underwater and that kind of stung honestly because i thought i had things dialed in.

i know the basics, i keep the mic gain where icom says to, RF power around 100 watts, ALC looks ok on the meter but i honestly dont fully understand what ALC is supposed to be doing. ive messed with the TX equalizer a little but every time i touch it i feel like i make things worse. is there a starting point that actually works or is this just one of those things where everyone has an opinion and nothing is actually right

also someone told me i should look into a better mic, maybe an Heil PR-40 or something like that, but i dont want to spend 300 bucks if the issue is something else entirely. would appreciate any real world experience here not just specs off a datasheet

the ALC thing is probably your issue or at least part of it. you want the ALC to barely move, like just kissing the lower end of the ALC range on voice peaks. if its riding high constantly youre basically compressing and distorting the audio before it even gets to the RF stage. a lot of guys set mic gain too high thinking louder is better and the ALC is just suppressing all that extra and making everything sound squashed and weird.

on the 7300 specifically there's a built in speech processor too, make sure thats not cranked. i run mine at like 3-4 out of 10 and that seems to add a little punch without wrecking the audio. the TX EQ on that radio is actually pretty decent once you figure it out, i'd cut some of the low end around 200-300hz and boost a little presence around 2khz, that's where voice intelligibility lives on ssb. the stock mic is honestly not the problem, ive heard guys with PR-40s sound terrible because their settings were a mess. fix the gain structure first before spending money

yeah mic placement matters way more than people think too. how close are you to the mic when you talk? i was getting muddy reports for months and turns out i was basically eating the mic and all that proximity bass effect was killing me. moved it like 4-5 inches away and the reports got way better almost immediately. not saying thats your problem but its worth trying before anything else