so ive been running a TS-590SG for about 4 years now and honestly it was a great radio, no real complaints, but i kept hearing people go on and on about the 7300's waterfall display and i finally caved last month when i found a used one locally for a decent price. guy was upgrading to a 7610 so the timing worked out.

first impressions — the waterfall is genuinely useful and not just a gimmick like i thought it might be. being able to see activity on a band before you even spin the dial is something i didnt know i was missing. propagation on 40 last weekend was all over the place and i could see the openings happening in real time which was cool.

the receiver feels a little different than the 590, hard to say if its better or worse honestly, just different. on a busy contest weekend the 590 always felt really solid to me but i havent had a chance to run the 7300 through a full contest yet so jury's still out. audio out of the speaker sounds better to my ears though, more natural.

anyway not really a question just figured id share since i see people asking about this comparison a lot. happy to answer anything if somone has specific questions about either radio.

the waterfall thing is real, i had the exact same reaction when i moved to a SDR-based setup a while back. once you've used one you kinda wonder how you ever found anything without it especially on the lower bands where stuff is scattered everywhere. 40m on a friday night looks like rush hour traffic on that display.

on the receiver comparison — from what ive read the 590 has a slight edge in close-in dynamic range but its not really something you'd notice unless you're doing serious contesting or working a pileup right next to a strong station. for normal operating the 7300 holds up fine. let us know how it does in a contest, id be curious to hear your take after running it for a few hours under pressure.

i run a 7300 and love it but fair warning the direct sampling architecture does mean you want a decent bandpass filter if you're anywhere near AM broadcast. took me a while to figure out why i was getting weird artifacts on 160 and it turned out a local AM station was basically walking all over everything. slapped a filter in line and it cleared right up. might not be an issue for you depending on where you are but worth keeping in mind.