With the PCM-R300, Sony offered a comparatively inexpensive, "semi-professional" variant of the consumer model DTC-790 as a competitor to models from Tascam (e.g. DA-20). The PCM-R300 has no differences from the DTC-790 except for the missing SCMS copy protection system and the gray color scheme. And although the strategy of offering consumer models (e.g. DTC-77ES as PCM-2700/2700A) as studio devices was often accompanied by adapted connections (the PCM-2700, for example, had XLR sockets with sensitivity or output level adjustable by hidden rotary potentiometers instead of the RCA analog connections and no optical TOSLINK digital connections), the PCM-R300 was based on in favor of standard RCA jacks, which made this recorder fully suitable for any Hi-Fi system. In addition, the PCM-R300 allows the display of error rates during playback as well as the display of the head drum operating hours via the operating menu.