I'm excited that Kenwood D75 is coming out soon. It's great to see that Kenwood is staying in the amateur radio market after COVID - they make high quality gear and that's good for the market overall. However, I don't have a pre-order in because there are a couple deal-breakers I want to see if Kenwood fixed from the D-72 and D-74.
The pricing is definitely what I was expecting, but I am holding off as well. I the D74 was not compelling enough for me to give up my D72. While the D74 had the wideband receiver, it lacked dual receive; and in my personal tests, the D72 captured signals that the D74 could not. With GPS and APRS enabled, the D72 also has better battery life the D74. The D74 sat on the shelf for a few months until I sold it. As to HT speakers, Icom does the best job from the big three; but none are as good as Motorola or Kenwood commercial HTs--or for that matter, a lot of Chinese HTs.
