Hi Twilo: I too owned a MC-300 for a short period of time. It is aesthetically beautiful & with build quality second to none. Unfortunatly, sonically I found it to be a huge disappointment. I found it to be both thin & very bright sounding (almost like something from Circuit City if you know what I mean)...that bad. The 352 on the other hand is a total redesign with balanced topology throughout. It is on a sonic par with both the 602 & 1000 as Douggie boy alluded to. However, I dont agree with getting the MC-500 over the 352. Even though the MC-500 is more powerful, it does not have the balanced topology design & the 352 is sonically superior. In any event, the 352 walks allover the 300. Hope this helps...sagger.