If we never see a before and after, then all results are purely subjective.
You mean; you have not compared the receive of that radio to another and can't tell the difference? I sure can. These RCI radios have many plusses; but the receive audio quality is not one of them.
This is a fairly well known fault with this radio. The mfr doesn't own up to it; they just wait till the current production run has been all sold before they even consider to make changes in the next batch. These RCI radios pretty much all have a nasty sounding receive - IMO. I own a 2950 and a 2995 and they both stink with this issue (and a few other issues too). One radio is a thru-hole design and the other is SMT respectively.
Never seen any radio from any mfr that didn't have some fault; this takes in amatuer radios as well. There well may be some that didn't; but they would be in the minority.
Getting rid of noise in the early thru-hole 29xx was done with changing out the resistance value in one portion of the receive circuit. The net result was marginal - at best. Even then, it was a compromise. Dunno where those web pages are off of the top of my head for that mod, but if one looks around you can find it. Doesn't surprise me at all that the SMT radios have the similar issue but from a different cause. The 2995 has a pretty lousy receive audio and is why I never use the radio. Prefer a Uniden-based radio for audio receive clarity. That SS/Jackson is an example: it may have problems with it but the receive was second to none
after the AGC was fixed. Its about time that shops deal with the issues that RCI won't even own up to because they can't afford to have warranty work that they must pay for.
Fifty bux to take the covers off, remove the filter (probably destroys the part in the process), dremel tool/remove the trace, and then solder the new part in is not too bad of a price. Part is probably ~$3-5 and takes a few minutes to clean out the solder joints/holes. The quality of workmanship is up to who you send it to. Having a few shops that fully stand behind their work is a rare commodity these days. Support them if you aren't going to do the work yourself. In this case, because it uses SMT - it is better if they do it and only if they back up their work.