so ive had the TS-590SG for about four years now and honestly its been a great radio, no real complaints, but ive been reading a lot about the IC-7300 and more recently the IC-7610 and i keep going back and forth in my head about whether theres actually a meaningful real-world difference or if im just convincing myself i need something newer.

my setup right now is the 590 into a LDG tuner, running into a fan dipole up about 35 feet, nothing fancy. i mostly do SSB and some digital, FT8 mostly lately. i dont do contests seriously, maybe a few times a year just to hand out points. the shack is in a fairly RF-quiet suburb but not totally clean, i get some line noise on 40m from somewhere down the street.

the main thing pulling me toward the 7610 is the dual watch and the waterfall — the 590s panadapter situation has always been kind of a workaround honestly. but then i think about whether ill actually use dual watch in practice or if its just cool to have. anyone gone from a 590 to a 7610 or even just a 7300 and felt like it was genuinely worth the money, not just different-but-same?

went from a 590sg to a 7300 about two years ago and honestly the waterfall alone changed how i operate, not even exaggerating. finding signals on a crowded 40m evening used to feel like fishing blind, now i can just see whats going on. that said the 590 receiver is really solid and i dont think i noticed a dramatic ears-on difference, the 7300 isnt obviously better in a quiet shack on most bands. for your use case — mostly ssb and ft8 with occasional contesting — i think the 7300 hits a sweet spot. the 7610 is a nicer radio but youre paying a lot more for the dual watch and some receiver improvements that matter more in contest pile-up situations than casual operating. if you can find a used 7610 for around 1400 or so maybe, but new price is hard to justify unless you find yourself really working DX hard or doing SO2R stuff.

classic GAS but also not wrong to want the waterfall, thats a real quality of life thing not just shiny object stuff. i kept my 590 for years telling myself the same thing and then borrowed a buddys 7300 for a weekend and yeah i bought one the next month. the 590 went to my secondary station and i dont regret either decision. your line noise on 40 probably wont get better with a new radio btw, have you tried tracking down the source? sometimes its a neighbors switching power supply or LED bulbs and its actually fixable, might be worth spending an afternoon on that before dropping money on a new rig.