After reading this whole thread, the worst thing about all of it, is that ShockWave was trying to give GOOD and ACCURATE information and was in my opinion mistreated, and the person that was arguing was doing do not based on knowledge but just on his opinion of what "sounds good". People that have been used to for instance, listening to a small desktop CD player with a couple small speakers (the wally world made in china type) along with other people that are used to it meaning the same sound will of course say that they sounds good. BUT - all of the sudden you take these same people and show them a really good HiFi system, and their whole world changes. But if they don't know better, all they have for reference is what they are used to. That's part of the problem.
The other part is the old "I've been doing it this way for years" and also the emotional attachment to their equipment they have spent money on. No one likes to feel like a fool for buying "the best of the best" only to find out that mayyybeee it isn't.
But also, let's face it. AM is a VERY forgiving mode. Remember it's one of the VERY FIRST modes that a voice could be carried on. You can have so many things wrong (off freq, transmitter overmodulating and clipping on neg peaks, audio harmonics, RF harmonics, IMD, etc) and still be able to hear the other person, it doesn't mean that it is "good" or "right". Heck, they used to generate it with an oscillator and a carbon mic in the RF line. Think about that. It can be detected with a diode, a coil, and an earphone (remember crystal radios?)
So it is no wonder that people who aren't exactly educated on the subject would have th attitude that if they can hear me, and I can hear them, then it's all good.
You want to run your stuff like that...fine. But me personally, I would rather have it set up and ran correctly. It's the difference between a shade tree mechanic that tunes his cars by ear, rather than using a timing light, and other equipment to make sure the engine is running how it should and at its best. Both will work, but why not do it the correct way? Especially when you have someone willing to help teach you for free? Then to shun them? What an ingrate!
To me, there is a HUGE difference in between hearing a guy on a galaxy radio with a restrictive audio path because of the capacitors used in the circuit that roll off the highs and lows too soon, overmodulated, driving a class C amplifier, crunchy, distorted, blaring loud, and 30Kcs wide, and a beautiful, articulate sounding AM station with highs and lows, not flat topping or clipping, with a nice strong carrier, the needle barely bumping just a bit on voice peaks, no fans running in the background, just nice smooth sounding audio. That is a work of art!
Remember, when we use RF to communicate, you are not hearing my voice, and I am not hearing your's. What we are hearing is an electronic REPRODUCTION of our voices. The closer it is to being an exact replica, the better the equipment is doing its job!