OK, here's a quick update. I watched some of Iron Man 1 on Blu-Ray tonight and actually all sounded VERY good. There was definitely more high-frequency material being reproduced compared to the Denon, but it's like the harshness isn't really there. At least, not at all bad.

So, my tentative conclusion is that it has to do merely with music listening and perhaps simply because I'm hearing the hi-freq. difference between DVD and Blu-ray.

Sound plausible anyone?

Epson 8350 * Denon 4311CI * XPA-5 * M80/VP180 * 2 QS8's+M2v3-DSX * SVS PC13-Ultra ** Buttkicker LFE