First, responding to N8FVJ's question: I recently acquired an IC-7610. Most of my operating time is spent listening on headphones, but I was struck by how clear the audio is when listening to SSB stations through a speaker. It appears that Icom's audio amp stages have considerably less distortion than those of Yaesu, the FTDX-5000 for example. And, the Noise Reduction function works remarkably well without seriously degrading the audio. I recently read a recommendation from a CW contest operator that you should run the NR all the time on 160 CW. I had serious doubts about that, but gave it a try in the recent 160 CW contest. The guy was right - it knocked down the atmospheric noise noticeably without any negative effects noticed.
Second, commenting on K7JQ's post: I'm fortunate to be one of those guys who is #1 Honor Role, and I've had transceivers with two receivers for years. But, I NEVER, EVER use the second receiver when chasing DX with a split pileup. My opinion is that the technique of listening to the callers is an archaic approach and far less productive than what I use. I find that a transceiver with two VFOs and a top notch panadaptor is the best way to go. By top notch, I mean the panadapter must be a real-time presentation with high resolution and you must be able to narrow down the visible span to 10-20 kHz. I watch the area of the pileup, using both the spectrum trace and the waterfall, focusing on timing of callers. With a bit or practice, you learn to spot the station being worked visually. Of course, there are always a half dozen or more stations who THINK that they're working the DX, but aren't. At any rate, once I study the freq pattern of the last few successful callers, I make a decision on where to call and nearly always get the DX on the first or second call. Of the transceivers mentioned, only the 7610 has a proper panadaptor that compares to the best software panadaptor, NaP3.
73, K8AC