so i had been running an old TS-450S for like eight years, which honestly never gave me problems but i wanted to get into digital modes more seriously and the waterfall on the icom just seemed like it would help a lot with finding signals, especially on 40m where things get crowded fast. picked up a used 7300 from a guy locally about three weeks ago and overall yeah its pretty great but there were a couple things that caught me off guard.

first the real signal scope is way more addictive than i thought itd be. i literally just sit there watching it sometimes instead of actually operating, which is kind of embarrassing to admit. second thing — and this surprised me — the receiver feels noticeably different from the 450S. not worse, just different. the 450S had this kind of... i dunno how to describe it, a certain character to how audio sounded on phone. the 7300 is cleaner i guess but took some adjustment.

also spent about two hours messing with the digital modes setup through WSJT-X before i got the levels right. the documentation online is everywhere and some of it is outdated so just be aware of that if youre setting it up. once it clicked though FT8 contacts started rolling in pretty easy.

anyone else come from an older kenwood and notice that kind of audio difference or is it just me getting used to new gear?

yeah the scope thing is real, i did the same thing when i first got mine. just watching the bands for like half an hour doing nothing. my wife walked in and asked if i was actually doing anything and i had no good answer.

on the audio difference — i think its partly the DSP implementation. the 7300 does a lot of processing that older analog-heavy rigs just dont do, so voices on SSB can sound a bit more processed or sterile depending on how you have the filters set. try playing with the IF filter width and the treble/bass adjustments in the menu, theres more tweakability in there than people realize at first. i eventually got it sounding closer to what im used to but it took a while finding the right combination. the receiver itself is genuinely excellent once you dial it in, dynamic range on 40m in particular is really solid for the price point.

came from a TS-590SG to a 7300 and honestly had pretty similar experience with the WSJT-X setup taking forever. the audio codec stuff through the USB is great once its working but getting windows to not mess with the audio levels automatically was the part that got me. theres a setting buried in the sound properties where you have to disable all the windows audio enhancements or it keeps adjusting the levels on you. might already know that but just in case.