SirQuack and Bridgman, thanks for your answers. That was the kind of info I was looking for. What I meant by bells and whistles is that, as a whole line, the Yamaha and Pioneer receivers appear to have more features on paper. For example, their high-end receiver lines are THX Select2, have more HDMI inputs (on average), have video scalers, etc. compared to the similarly priced Denon or HK receivers. I'm not arguing about whether these features are desirable or useeful, as different people have different needs. Rather, I had noticed that, despite these additional features, people on this forum still seemed to prefer Denon and HK, so I was wondering what I wasn't seeing by looking at the receivers on paper.
