For one the 5803 is a staggering $4500 bucks retail. Also unless you buy the new 9000 dvd player from denon you can not use the digital link. Loads of beautiful inputs and outputs, but as shown through the 5800, a future upgrade would cost you at least $800 bucks. Just about the cost of a 950. And your still not getting 200w per channel(denon is 165). Denon does have the new dolby surround headphone output, THX ultra 2 and some other niceties that are just seem to me to be to expensive. THe pioneer feature you mentioned is very cool. But a radio shack spl meter at $39.99 would yield the same results. Again I think they are both overpriced solid recievers. I dont think buying any of those would make you unhappy. But if you want the most bang for your buck, real world features you could use now and a company that actually talks to you and listens to your requests. And really wants to give you a product without bugs and problems and that is 100% right, you want to go with OUTLAW.