I love mine. Quality is evident through and through. Excellent SSB radio, very stable, lovely quiet receiver, NB works well on man-made noises from the car. Stock mic is a little tinny sounding, an aftermarket power mic improves the radio. The freq mod is easy, the chipswitch mod is awesome if you choose to go that route.
I use an Astatic 575mb6 hand mike on it, a KL-400 mobile amp (180 pep), and a Wilson 1000. It is a DXers delight. Lot's of unsolicited reports of great audio, many think it is a high end HF radio until I tell them it's a Lincoln.
You will hear many say that it is bad on AM, because it uses low-level modulation. There are a couple of mods out there to make it really go to town on AM, like Rogerbird's mic gain mod. There is also a clip-a-diode mod that makes it swing like a banshee, but I've never tried either. I found that after wiring up the 575 mic, and turning the AMC pot up just shy of full-bore, it sounds awesome on AM. Very natural and clear modulation, not an "ass-blaster" like a clipped Galaxy, but plenty enough to get respect from AM swing-heads.
It also does very nicely on FM. I really don't have many gripes about this radio at all, the display could be a little bigger and brighter. The variable power only works for AM and FM, not SSB, and the Hi/low mic gain button is not as good as a continuously adjustable knob would be. And the "accessory" jack on the back is a bit of a pain, a regular EXT speaker jack would be nice. I find that the internal speaker is one of the worst sounding ones around, really kind of mushy. I use a little external speaker that sounds good.
The current production models use an MRF-455 for a final that doesn't even break a sweat doing the 25 watts SSB that mine does. They can be modded for quite a bit more than that, but I prefer stock power and a small amp. They can tolerate ALOT of reflected power as well.
I'd give it an 8 out of 10 overall.
