I don't know if it's the "ultimate" or not but I'm very happy with my nearly 1 year old Icom IC-7200.
It is fairly compact and has IF level DSP. Probably the nicest digital mode feature though is the radio has it's own sound card circuitry. You connect from your computer to the USB port built into the radio and load the driver. After that the single USB connection carries all of the radio control commands (CIV) and the audio information to and from the rig. Leaves your computer's sound card available for other things. 73, Tim, N9PUZ
