I'm going to provide an extreme example in this question.
I have A) Denon's earliest lowest-end model DVD player that is DLink 3rd gen-enabled (probably at least an '05 model), and I also have B) Denon's newest highest-end model DVD player (which of course is 3rd gen-enabled).
I also have my receiver, the AVR-3805, a solid mid-tier receiver, which of course supports DLink.
All elements are the same, the only delta being the 2 players. On paper, which player is going to sound better, and why?
