So ive had my IC-7300 for about three years now and honestly its been a great radio, no real complaints, but i keep finding myself looking at the 7610 and trying to justify it. The dual watch thing is the main thing pulling me honestly, i do a lot of SO2R-adjacent stuff where im hunting DX on one band while running a pileup on another and right now im doing that with the 7300 and an old FT-857 which works but the 857 is just... not great on HF anymore, something weird going on with the front end i think.

Anyway the question is basically — if youre already happy with the 7300 does moving to the 7610 feel like a real upgrade or does it just feel like spending $1500 more for a slightly bigger screen and dual receive. I see a lot of people rave about the 7610 but i wonder how much of that is just new radio excitement. The roofing filter situation on the 7610 is supposed to be noticeably better but in real-world operating would I actually notice that or is it more of a spec sheet thing

Went through this exact same debate about 18 months ago. Ended up keeping the 7300 and buying a used 7600 instead of the 7610, which probably wasnt the smartest move in hindsight but it made sense financially at the time. But to actually answer your question — the roofing filter difference is real, especially if you contest or work crowded band conditions. On a quiet band you probably wont notice much. On 40m during a contest weekend or when 20m is wall to wall EU stations, the 7610 handles adjacent signal rejection noticeably better than the 7300. Its not a night and day thing but its there. The dual watch on the other hand is legitimately useful if youre doing what you described. Running two separate radios is fine until youre trying to also log and suddenly you have three things fighting for your attention.

what's going on with the 857 front end? like is it overloading or just deaf? because that might be fixable before you spend money on a whole new rig. had a similar thing happen with mine turned out to be a cold solder joint on the RF board, tech fixed it for like 60 bucks. anyway not trying to talk you out of the 7610 just seems worth checking first