I'm glad to know that you actually own both receivers in order to make a fair judgement. I could only go by what I've personally heard. When I bought my first Denon, I compared it to a Yamaha and I definitely heard that the Yamaha was brighter. However, it was a "sales" guy was the one doing the switching. For all I know, he could have had them on different settings. I do know for sure that both sounded way better than my old Sony!

M60s
VP150
QS8s
Marantz SR6003
Samsung LN52B550
Oppo DV-980H
Insignia NS-WBRDVD