"how quiet does the Yamaha run? Is it as quiet as the Denon?"
Silent.
I have never even thought of this issue. That is how quiet each are. I cannot hear either player, and I sit 10 feet away.
And believe me, I am such a pain in the A$$, and such a nit-picker, if either of these players produced any noise at all when playing I would have jumped all over that S**t!
The Yamaha does seem to take a bit longer to load discs than the 2900 though.
But once it gets going, even with 5 discs in and on shuffle play, it moves along just fine. Even with CDs burned on the computer.
It is a nice player.
