N3JI Web Page for Full Info ( Take a look )

I use (or have used) a variety of rigs, from "boat anchors" (vintage AM rigs) to the latest & greatest from Icom, Kenwood, Yaesu, and Ten-Tec.  As I have said above, my main HF rig at home is the TS-950SDX.  I have modified it so the receive is fairly flat from ~DC to about 6k on SSB (a BIG thanks to WZ5Q for all the help identifying the required parts that needed to be changed!!).  Of course, I can still narrow it to below 2.5 kHz if necessary, but I rarely have the need.  There is some roll-off above 3 kHz, so it's not perfectly "flat", but it's quite good, and much better than stock.  The transmit is good from around 20 Hz to about 4.2 kHz.  My processed TX audio effectively uses approximately 40 Hz to about 4.5 kHz, as you can see from the above link.  And as with my receive, I can narrow the TX up as much as necessary.  All of the above applies to SSB.  I also tinker with CW and PSK (as well as other soundcard Digi-Wigi modes), and this rig can narrow down very tightly.  I do NOT have any optional filtering installed since it comes stock with 500 Hz, 2.7 kHz, and 6 kHz filters in both the 8.83 MHz and 455 kHz IFs.  I can choose whichever filter I want independent of mode, and when both IFs have a filter of the same BW, it yields a slightly narrower BW than each by themselves (a benefit of cascading filters).  I have not found a need for any optional filters, especially since I can adjust whatever filtering I have inline at the first and second IFs and vary the upper and lower slopes.  For maximum BW, the 8.83 filter can be bypassed completely via the front panel, and I have installed a piece of coax across one of the 455 kHz optional filter slots to bypass that one as well.  That effectively lets the DSP handle all the RX filtering, so that the recovered audio contains as much BW as possible (again, that's approximately 0-6 kHz max on SSB) with no analog filter distortion.

If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm into high quality SSB audio also known as "Hi-Fi" SSB or eSSB.  Many feel this facet of Amateur Radio is wasteful or in extreme cases very rude or even illegal.  I can only say that who gets to decide this?  The FCC's Part 97 makes no specific reference to allowed BW for SSB or AM, so it's up to us to decide as long as there is enough available BW open to support it.  eSSB is not for everyone -- I would certainly never claim that to be the case.  Just like contesting, QRP, DX'ing, CW, Satellites, or any other mode isn't for everyone, neither is eSSB!  It most often takes up less space than AM, and definitely less space than a dirty, overdriven 2.4 kHz SSB signal.  So what's the problem, then?  For some reason, this mode has elicited literally hostile actions by more than a few people.  I have been in QSO many times and have had to put up with rude comments, intentional QRM, disgusting bodily function noises, etc. just because of how I sound!  Now how silly does that sound to you?  In reality, not too many can even receive eSSB anyway!  Even if you have a rig with wide enough filtering, you have to take a couple simple steps to hear it all.  First, forget using the internal speaker, and in most cases, even an external speaker plugged directly into the rig.  Usually, the best place to pull the receive audio is out of the accessory jack usually found on the back of the rig.  Of course, you can't drive a speaker with that, so you have to use some kind of amplifier and external speaker.  I feed mine directly to my PC then on to a dbx preamplifier which drives an Alesis 150W amplifier.  It drives a pair of modified Bose 301s and a JBL professional sub-woofer located under my desk.  Not only does this work very well for eSSB, but also for listening to MP3s or streamed radio stations, watching movies, and gaming.

The bottom line is that many folks seem to judge something that they haven't really heard!  Others appear to not even want to hear it.  I have pointed a few people to sites with lots of eSSB samples and they have come back either claiming to not hear much difference (oh come ON!!) or, they claim that it sounds terrible because of one thing or another.  They have either made their mind up and are unwilling to change their opinion, or are just plain deaf!  I honestly believe that a lot of people tune to an eSSB QSO with a rig that has no chance of hearing the entire transmitted signal accurately (or it simply isn't set up to hear it), and decides that eSSB does nothing and just wastes space.  If you have decent speakers on your PC, or at least half decent headphones, go to John-NU9N's or Mike-WZ5Q's websites and listen to the clips there.  John has the clips organized by BW, so you can hear the subtle but important differences between less than 3 kHz SSB, 6 kHz SSB, and everything in between.  Mike also has a variety of clips of all different types of sounds.  eSSB is about sounding good, learning, experimenting, and most importantly, HAVING FUN!  After all, besides bona fide emergency communications, isn't that why we do what we do?