Greetings!
IF he was trying to talk to someone on FM mode, and you're listening to him on AM on your radio - the effect would be like very pinched-up audio. 2995DX has FM - so if your neighbor has the same radio - well - you switching over your radio to FM mode would have cleared this up real quick
Now if this "low-volume" occurs when someone is talking to you on AM and you're listening to them on your radio on the AM mode- that's relatively close by (same signal strength or within that "1-mile" distance) and sounds "pinched-up" - then yes, I 2nd nomads notion of the problem is within your receiver.
For some hints to this RX problem would also show this effect on SSB modes too - and they wouldn't have to be very close - they'd be excessively loud and "garbled" on their voice peaks and your meter would be going crazy with local popping noises and electrical ambient noises because there would be little to no control over the gain your receiver has. ANL doesn't work in SSB but NB does - so with these symptoms and the NB switch has no effect - you have a problem in your receiver.
What kind? Well, that is a bit more complicated but I'd think AGC (Automatic Gain Control) is a strong candidate. It's a signal generated the radios' detector/discriminator/signal processor that routes back to the 1st stage of the Receiver and starts "Backing Down" the amplifiers' gain so it doesn't damage the RX strip chain that follows.
It can do it in various ways. Methods used are; offsets to the RF gain control power present on the line for the RX section (controlled as a unit) or via PIN diodes than can be used to shunt - limit - RF input to the RF amp stage via directly - controlled by the RF gain knob.
If any of those parts failed - they can make the radio act like it's WIDE OPEN and picks up everything from noisy car engines idling nearby onto local electrical devices and security systems "polling" their base units with "Keep alive" signals - all kinds of stuff sniffed out of the air...but one wrong spike in EMF/EMP close by, can damage the radio. It can't back down the gain and may overload your receiver and potentially do damage...
So don't neglect it - look into it and hope the above gives you some direction to work towards to figure this out.
I'd start with the various modes first, like FM and AM and listen for the changes to the received audio In various modes...and if your neighbor starts up sounding like that again...try switching to FM and see if you can hear them better - they don't have to know you're listening but at least you can understand them. If you can, great, you can relax but of this still happens no matter where you're one the band and what mode you're in then you have a real problem.
Regards!
:+> Andy <+: