[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Personally I like the Yamaha’s understated good looks.

As for features - I'm not well versed on them... I guess without sitting down in a showroom for a couple hours with each receiver to figure that out -

Or studying their on-line manuals...

I’d pay attention to the remotes, if you plan to use the stock one. In addition to the usual pre-set codes, button-by-button learning is essential if you plan to use the remote for all your components. Also, a remote that doesn’t require you to toggle between source functions and receiver functions for common things like volume and muting – that gets old in a hurry! A macro function is also a must-have, IMO.

The electroluminescent display on the Denon remote is concern for me. When they first came out I was hearing complaints that they have a voracious appetite for batteries. Dunno, maybe they’ve improved, but I’d still expect it to go through batteries much faster than your average hard-button remote. Plus I’d be worried that the screen would crack if you ever dropped the remote.

Since I assume this is all new to you, an easy-to-understand manual with lots of pictures is tremendously helpful, since home theater is ridiculously complicated. IIR, both Denon and Yamaha are very good in that regard.

Regards,
Wayne