What is not true?
I think you are mixed up, I said the 7300 was fun and easy to use.
Again, the 7300 was fun and easy to use.
Nice display, nice tuning, well thought out controls.
So was the 756 pro radios I had, Icom has the ergonomics down pat.
The 756 pro series is really my benchmark for a well thought out radio layout.
The audio both ways is not as good as some other rigs.
The two I had did not pass audio below 200 Hz on RX and while the TX was fine for me, many want it to go as wide as the Kenwood radios can.
Why bother with a 3-1 antenna tuner?
It never managed to tune my fan dipole over any useful range.
Why do I have to go into menu's and enter emergency mode at 50 watts to have the tuner work a little better when many radios do MUCH better at full power?
Elecraft will tune anything, so will the cheap G90 from China, Flex does much better and so does Yaesu (a bit).
So, why bother, I would rather have another antenna port and no tuner then a tuner that does not really tune much.
Great radio overall, but boy do people get protective of their radio choice...
Sure, get personal and nasty just because someone posts their thoughts about the new radio.
You made statements about the 7300 that just aren't true. Did you bother to read the manual? The tuner is useless? Why?...because it only tunes to a 3:1 SWR? The tuners on $4,500 radios only tune to 3:1. The audio is thin? Are you talking receive or transmit audio?
If receive, are you using an external speaker, or the built-in one that sounds crappy on any radio? Have you tried the receive bass/treble EQ or frequency response range adjustments? Set and forget menu items.
If transmit audio, what mic are you using? Have you adjusted the EQ or the fully adjustable transmit bandwidth options to your operating preference? Proper mic gain/compression settings? Set and forget menu adjustments. I always get great, clean audio reports.
Not enough buttons/knobs? One poke of a "Multi" knob and on the touchscreen you get access to mic gain and power controls. One poke on the screen to get access to band change. I could go on and on. And if you notice, the (limited) front panel knobs and buttons are really all you need for 95% of on-the-fly operating, even in a contest environment.
Then you say the 7300 is fun to operate. I really don't know what you expect in a $1,000 radio. Yes, I'm biased on the 7300. But I believe after 61 years in ham radio, what I stated makes sense, backed up by fact. If you state something, at least tell us why. Want more features?...spend more money and maybe get all the things the 7300 lacks and you want. But don't criticize it because it's small and doesn't have enough front panel controls. $1,000...many tens of thousands of hams world-wide can't be wrong.
I have spoken
.