so ive been on SSB for about a year now and i keep getting reports that my audio is either too bassy, too thin, or just kind of muffled. i upgraded from a cheap headset to a Heil PR-40 thinking that would fix it but honestly the reports havent gotten much better. running an IC-7300 and ive messed with the TX equalizer a bit but i dont really know what im doing in there. i set the mic gain to where the ALC is just barely moving which is what i read you're supposed to do, but something is still off.

is there like a standard set of settings people use for SSB voice quality or is it really just trial and error? also someone told me i should be using a speech processor but i have no idea if thats actually useful or just a crutch. any thoughts from people who actually know this stuff would be great

the ALC thing is actually where a lot of people go wrong - you dont want the ALC barely moving, you want it to not be moving at all during normal speech, and only just kissing the top on peaks. if its deflecting on every syllable your audio is probably getting squashed in a way that sounds harsh on the other end. back off the mic gain until the ALC is really just reacting to the loudest peaks only.

for the PR-40 on the 7300 specifically, a lot of people cut some of the low end around 100-150hz in the TX eq because that mic has a lot of proximity effect and can get really boomy depending on how close you are. then a slight boost around 2-3khz helps intelligibility on SSB. its not magic but it does make a difference. and get a friend to record you on a second radio while you transmit, that feedback loop is way more useful than trying to guess from reports alone.

speech processor question - yeah it can be useful but it's super easy to overdo it. i had mine cranked way up for months and kept getting told my audio sounded distorted and kind of aggressive. turned it way down and suddenly people started saying i sounded a lot better. the point of the processor is to increase average power without increasing peaks, not to sound loud. theres a sweet spot and its usually way lower than you'd think. also are you talking directly into the mic or off axis? PR-40 is pretty sensitive to position too