so ive been on SSB for about a year now and people keep telling me my audio sounds like im talking through a pillow or that theres some weird processing going on. im using an IC-7300 with the stock mic (the HM-219 that came in the box) and i havent really touched the audio settings much beyond the basic setup in the menu. compression is on but i only have it around 3-4 on the meter.

a guy on 40m last week told me to turn off the DEXP and i did and it seemed to help a little but i still get comments. is there something specific about the 7300 menus that trips people up? i feel like i read somewhere that the bass rolloff settings matter a lot for SSB but i cant find where i saw that now. speech processor on or off is another thing i keep going back and forth on, some people swear by it some people say leave it off unless youre running QRP or dealing with a weak signal situation.

just trying to sound decent on the air, not trying to be a contester or anything. regular ragchews on 40 and 20 mostly.

the HM-219 is honestly not a great mic for SSB, its fine for quick contacts but for ragchewing youre gonna get that boxy sound people are describing. a lot of 7300 owners end up swapping to something like an Heil PR-781 or even just a cheap dynamic desk mic and the difference is pretty dramatic. the 7300 has a built in mic EQ in the menus (SET > Connectors > Microphone) and you can bump the mid presence a bit, somewhere around 1-2kHz, and roll off some of the low end below 300Hz because low end just turns into mud on SSB especially if theres any compression happening.

on the compressor question - for ragchewing id honestly just leave it off or very light. compression helps in a pile up when you need every dB but for a normal conversation it just makes everything sound processed and fatiguing to listen to. DEXP being off was the right call, that noise gate can do weird things to the starts of your words if its not set right.

yeah the stock mic thing is real, i went through the same thing when i got mine. also check whether youre running USB or LSB on the right bands - i know that sounds obvious but i caught myself on the wrong sideband once and couldnt figure out why everything sounded off for like 20 minutes lol. 40m is LSB below 10MHz and 20m is USB, the radio should do it automatically but worth double checking if youre manually switching modes.

also TX bandwidth setting in the 7300, there should be an option to set how wide your transmitted audio is. some people narrow it down to like 2.4kHz for crowded band conditions but for a ragchew you can open it up a bit and it sounds more natural. not sure of the exact menu path off the top of my head but its in there somewhere.