so ive been running an IC-7300 for about 3 years now and honestly its been great, no real complaints, but ive got some birthday money burning a hole in my pocket and started looking at the TS-890S and now im going down a rabbit hole i cant escape from

the roofing filter situation on the TS-890S is obviously a big deal on paper and the IF noise floor specs look impressive but im wondering how much of that actually translates to real world difference for a guy operating mostly 40m and 20m SSB with some casual CW thrown in. im not contesting seriously or anything, maybe a few hours a week on weekends. my antenna situation is a trap vertical in the backyard, nothing fancy, HOA neighborhood so i cant really do much better right now

basically what im asking is whether people who have actually used both feel like the 890 justifies being like 3x the price for someone in my situation. ive read all the eham reviews and the sherwood table and i get the technical side of it but i want to hear from people who actually switched or tried both back to back

honest answer? for casual SSB on 40 and 20 with a trap vertical, probably not. the 7300 is genuinely a very good radio and most of where the 890 shines is in crowded contest conditions or if you're doing serious weak signal work where you need every dB of dynamic range you can get. if your antenna is the limiting factor — and a trap vertical is a trap vertical — you're not going to hear a dramatic difference in your day to day operating

that said i did go from a 7300 to an 890S about 18 months ago and i do notice a difference on 40m late evenings when the band gets busy. the close-in dynamic range really does matter when there's a loud station 2kHz away and you're trying to pull something out. but i'm also running a 4-el yagi on a 50ft tower so take that for what it's worth. if i was stuck with a vertical i honestly dont know if i'd have bothered with the upgrade

i went the other direction actually, had an 890 and sold it and bought a 7300 plus a bunch of other stuff with the leftover cash. the panadapter on the 7300 is honestly more fun to use day to day imo and the audio DSP is really good. people sleep on how usable that radio is for the price. the 890 is technically better on paper in some areas but i found myself just enjoying the operating experience more on the icom. totally subjective thing though