Last night while listening to 75m, I heard some OT's with some mid to high end radios. Mainly an Icom IC-756 with an iCM mic for Icom and an FT-9000 with I believe what was a PR-20. They didn't sound all that special on the air. Matter of fact, they sounded average with the 756 op having a slightly better tone.
Then a guy chimed in with a TS-2000 and it wasn't set up for ragchew and it sounded like crap. Didn't catch the mic. All were talking smack about the TS-570 and I know those can sound pretty sweet with the right setting and mic and nothing else.
Seriously, without having to do too much more than a hundred dollar mic, get on the air with a used TT and you will blow those $10K radios away. I have heard Art Bell's ESSB on the air. I'm not talking about using a soundboard and filter widths beyond 2.4 to 2.8. I hope the OT's really bought their rigs for superb receive and stuff. I think that out of that group last night, the guy on the 756 probably got the most bang for the buck while they were talking about audio.
To bad there were not any TT rigs on with them. :)