I own both of these radios. I’ve had the FTDX10 for a couple of months and the IC-7300 for about 5-6 years. I am not getting rid of either one anytime soon as I wanted to do a long-term comparison of the two. If you go back through my blog you can see some of the differences. Up to now I have tried not to be subjective and to provide my actual findings as I compare the two. In this case, there will be some subjective opinions on my part, mainly due to my ears and internal filters (brain) are probably different than yours.
Setup. The antenna used was my 270′ OCF Dipole with the same coax used up to the tuners. I chose the 40 meters because there was a fair amount of activity on it. Both radios were setup basically the same. For the FTDX, I set the roofing filter to 500 hz and the Digital filter to 300hz. I set the DNR to 15. On the Icom, I set the BPF to 500 hz and the Digital filter to 300 hz. I set the DNR to 15 and then backed it off to 13 as it was slightly more aggressive the the FTDX.
The test was simple, I found a busy part of the 40 meter band with close in signals. I then swapped the antenna back and forth between the radios. I did occasionally kick in the optional 300 hz roofing filter on the FTDX.
What’s the Verdict?
To be honest, both radios performed well and either one will get the job done. I had no problem hearing a signal even with a stronger nearby station. Blocking was good on both. The FTDX was a little better at blocking and when I kicked in the 300 hz roofing filter, it did help quite a bit. However, the 300 hz filter adds $175 to the total.
As of today (11/25/22), the FTDX10 is selling for $1349.95 and the IC-7300 is going for $1149.95 at HRO. Interestingly the list price for the FTDX is $1699 and the IC-7300 is $1399. I think that is what I paid for my Icom back in 2016 or 2017. The Icom is holding its value fairly well.
What to do?
I suggest that if you have an IC-7300, hang onto it. I’m keeping mine. I don’t think it’s worth the hassle to swap them out. If you are a new guy to HF radio, I still recommend the IC-7300. It’s easier to use. Read through my blog to understand why I feel that way. If you are a CW Op, you may benefit from some of the bells and whistles the FTDX offers. If you are a DX chaser, the FTDX may offer you a slight advantage. I will admit that I like the FTDX10 for CW operation. I also like the IC-7300. My affair with the FTDX10 is far from over, When I am in my camper, I like a full-sized radio. I will continue to bring both to the field (one at a time) for some time to come.
Below is a link to a YouTube video showcasing both radios during the CQWWDX CW contest.
KK4Z 
I’ve been using my FT891 with mAT-30 antenna tuner just like yours. I use the LDG-Z-11ProII tuner with my 7300. I love both of them. I have activated with both. The one advantage that my 7300 is the user friendly features where the 891 has several menus that you have to flip through where the 7300 is touch screen. Performance wise, if I really had to make a choice, I would take the 7300. Both are excellent radios. de W6LEN / Jess
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I agree 100%.
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Nice to have both, isn’t it!
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I found the 7300 falls apart in heavy contests where’s 10 is solid. I sold the 7300. And I never used aggressive DSP noise reduction on either radio, I am old school it seems. This was on CW.
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Hey Curt. I have used the 7300 in CW contest and it worked quite well. Normally I do not use a lot of DSP but there were a couple of popular YouTube channels advocating that approach so… I normally run DSP on 3 or 4 and set the filter to 500 Hz or less where the 7300’s 500 Hz Band Pass Filter kicks in. It acts like a roofing filter with very sharp skirts. The best filters are between the ear-cups. That and I I often run with no preamp and on the lower bands, attenuation. I also use RF gain quite a bit. Icoms have a 20dB preamp before the ADC so too much preamp will overload. The FTDX10 is a nice radio. I am glad you found a radio you are happy with.
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HI Curt, I have also owned both and the highly rated 7610. The ftdx10 in real contest use with resonate antennas and beams on the higher bands either on cw or ssb will show better than either of those two Icoms above. When the bands really get packed that is when those better receiver numbers in lab reports make all the difference tha t only show up in very crowded band conditions but in regular use they are both fine. The 7300 is the most easy to use radio were the Ten you gotta rtfm but the icom does have a sexy display. Today Yaesu has out the FT710 which is a true sdr but I no longer have the 7300, 7610 or the Ten but sold them all and treated myself to a ftdx101d, it a wonderful radio but you gotta read the manual. At Orlando this year I did get suckered into buying and now have a 710, only used it a few ours so the jury is still out but it does show very good promises for Yaesu’s first all sdr and at the show price of $799 it’s $200 less than the 7300 out the door on the field model. My contest work has come from building a small but effective station on Long Island with two crank ups on a third acre with 9 beams and some wire antennas. But today retired hear in SW Florida its a TH2 at 45ft and a off 80 threw 10 dipole up 69ft in a big pine that Ian trimed some branches but still standing. I mostly do ssb these days but only play with cw just to keep the Ole brain active! Very fine review.
Jim KX2T
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Hi Jim. I have owned/own all 4 radios. The 7610 is my main shack radio. In general, working with both the 10 and the 7610, when set up correctly, on CW, whatever I can hear on the 10, I can hear on the 7610. The Icoms require more Attenuation and/or RF Gain reduction than other radios because they have a 20 dB preamp before the ADC. Also, the Icoms have a lower noise floor than the Yaesu’s. I had the FT-710 for a while and feel it compares well with the IC-7300. My typical comment about the 7300/710 is choose whatever brand you are married to, they are that close in real life usage. Thanks for your comments. You have some good radios there.
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Hi Kurt, cam back from Orlando Hamcation and HRO suckered me into buying a FT710, for $799 plus tax it was a great deal. Its kinda like the 7300 but without the noise floor all Icom’s radio’s have which has always bothered me, I am not sure if its way to much gain in the RF front end or the audio amp in the back end that feeds the speaker amp or the headphone amp but the 710 has allot less. The 7610 I had for more than 3 years but when I placed the Ten side by side I did notice allot less receiver noise in the FTDX10 over the 7610 and that is with no pre amp on in either radio with antenna connected or not plus either with external speaker or my Sony MDR 7506 headphones.
The real differences between any of these radio’s come to show there ugly head is during the big DX contests on phone or cw and if your using something like an 80 threw 10 OCF dipole up 60ft and a small tribander on 20 threw 10 up around 40ft when these bands get chocked full of signals at peak hours the Icom’s front end starts to cave. This is what Rob Sherwood doesn’t see in his Colorado QTH but we see it on the eastern coast or someone in Europe but the more you get inland or have lesser antennas this may not be of any issue. After living on Long Island NY for most of my life and being in this hobby for 50 plus years this is a cold hard fact and after building a fairly competitive contest station a 1/3rd acre on LI back in the nineties I learned a lot but todays radio are better than the likes of a FT1000MP or an Icom IC765/775 radio’s back then.
Every day use it boils down to what poison you want to use but during a contest these lab number differences show there ugly head. I think the 710 and 7300 are on par with each other, the 710 will do a little more in some area’s and the 7300 has the sexy display which has more configurable style. the 7610 is the FTDX101D’s direct competition but again the display in the Icom is nicer but in the Yaesu having two RX section with there own controlled that do not need to be shared with one control is allot easier to use. The Ten is a in between radio which boasts almost the 101D’s RX performance but only one RX and less thrills but on CW with the 300Hz roof during CW DX contest its not very far behind the best there is but its smaller. To me after having built and owned a K3 the Ten is a K3 Killer at allot less of an investment.
There is one thing I do not like about the 710 its made in China kind of like the TS590s I had it was not made in Japan but I do believe the 7300 is made in Japan. I would hope that Icom would re evaluate both the 7300 and the 7610 with upgraded and newer features but as long as there selling somewhat today they will not but from what I did see from HRO this weekend HRO sold ten 710’s next to one 7300 and one of there sales guys said that he alone sold 22 710’s and only one 7300 so the tides have changed and Yaesu seems to be doing catch up. BTW they sold 2 FTDX101D’s that they brought but the two 7610’s they did not sell, considering they both came out between 2017 and 2018 the market is best for the kilobuck radio.
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I owned the 7610 since 2018 and sold it in 2021, used it with a small station which was a two element tribander up 45′ and some wires up between 50 to 60 feet for 40&75/80 meters. I only listen during the CW contest cause I just don’t operate at 30 to 40wpm anymore but give out some points for by WW buddies. Most of my contesting is done with SSB during the big two, CQWW and ARRLDX so in 2021 I put the 7610 and the FTDX10 side by side during the busy times on 40&20 meters, especially on 40ty at night. I never use any pre amps on those bands and with the Icom I had to use around 20db or more, with the Ten I just ran it with just in the IPO position and almost never had to use the 6db attenuator only when meat grinder stations like K3LR were right next door and those 8877’s were pushed to there max. I have in my past have built and owned a vert competitive but small by comparison station on Long Island in NY with an array of stacked monobanders on two crank up towers and did compete against the big boys in the multi single contesting section and have taken 1st place USA in the CQWW SSB contest 3 times almost in a row except in 1998 were we went MM and placed 5th USA. Never once used my callsign cause I didn’t care whos call was in black and white plus I didn’t want almost 5000 cards via the bureau six months later but we assembled a good stead crew and made the most of what we had to the max. Those days the only radio’s that held up were the original 1000MP’s along with band pass filtering on every station, they did ok for those days but today I try and get the best our of what I can afford.
Today with radios like the 7610 and the 101D they both have extra front end filtering such as the Digi Select in the Icom and the VC tune in the 101d series but what I have noticed is even with the FTDX10 there band pass filtering best even what the Icom does cause when you read the lab reports for both radios just look at the second order intercept point numbers which in the Ten are 20db or better than the 7610 and are still way better when the two preamps are used. Most normal hams don’t care about these numbers but just look again at the blocking numbers with the Ten next to any sdr radio which most sdr radio’s are around +- 125 and the Yaesu’s Ten is over 140db at 2Khz spacing which the ARRL labs use but Sherwoods labs don’t, why I do not know but 2Khz are real world numbers.
I got off the point in which I am trying to make. I buy my radio’s by how they handle big signals next to very weak signals and do not experience overload. To be competitive in any way shape or form I really don’t care about the display which today way to many that get into this hobby place the GUI first on there list, sorry I am an old school OP, the receiver is number one and has been for me for over 50 years in this hobby. When I placed the 7610 next to the FTDX10 in 2021 both with NO Pre Amp, both with no use of any noise blanker of NR and with the Icom I had to use at least around 20db of antennation on 40 meters the Icom was getting the effect of overload and the Yaesu just handled it and I could find holes between stations with the Ten were the 7610 it sounded like overload. Now I was only using a dipole at 60ft, no beam or phased arrays of any kind, all my station ports on different antenna ports are at ground potential so there is now way of back feeding a signal because of improper grounding plus that would show in both rigs. Mid you I had owned the Ten for 9 months and had done side by side comparos before but this was a real acid test. Before I sold the 7610 I had done the same test during the CW weekend and again the Yaesu was best in show. I am not a Yaesu Fan boy but threw many years of owning bot radio’s like the very first SS Icom IC701 next the IC751A, FF to an IC765 then the IC756, 746Pro, 7300(owned two) and the 7610. On the Yaesu side the FT101E, FT901DM,FT990,FT1000MP(Two) FTDX3000 and there were a few Kenwoods in the mix and on K3 I built around 2010. I have had more than a few radio’s but I find the Ten has allot to offer, there are no real perfect radio’s, every radio has there strengths and weakness but the Ten for the price of admission is an outstanding value but when I see reviews like the VK4 guy that has panned the Ten and even yours I just have to make your readers look at a different viewpoint.
With almost every Yaesu you must RTFM yes read the manual, there radio’s are not like Icom’s which I place in the simpleton class as far as use, this should not be taken as a pun but they are easier to use but to me I always read the manual even with the Icom’s so I can understand all the sometimes small differences that make the radio better in use. With the Yaesu they have more up front controls, even had the FT710 for a while great little radio but like the 7300 you had to stroll around multi use of controls were the Ten you have all the QRM fighting controls right up front. As far as the big radio’s are concerned the 7610 had that milti use of the same controls between the two RX sections, it is in no way shape or form like there 7851 but the FTDX101D I now have each RX section has its own selectivity, notch, apf and contour controls no need to flip[ flop and try and remember were you were. Yet all I see in some reviews is complaints on Yaesu’s display which is real time and they don’t seem to hear that in Japan but Icom has averaging but if your looking to pick up the weakest signal real time seems to get that right.
In the end its a wonderful time for radios today, there are very few flops but many very good choices that actually best many of the radio’s that were tops back in 2010. I owned a K3, very good radio for CW but you place that 300Hz roofing filter in the Ten and it becomes a K3 killer plus its allot easier to use than the K3 ever was which as a horrible radio to use cause you had to take a month or more to understand the work around for there controls. I cannot wait to see what Yaesu might come out next cause the 710 is besting many of the SDR radio’s cost way more in price and if they get even better at it Icom might have to go back to the designing board cause the 7300 needs an ungraded model like maybe a MKII.
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