Devin – Sorry, but I am not the person to comment on the Denon pre/pros or receivers. The only Denon piece I have is the 3910 DVD player. I have a Parasound Halo pre/pro. There are other people on this forum that are much more knowledgeable about the spectrum of Denon h/w.
You might want to call Denon tech support, tell them the two models you are considering, and ask what the specific difference is. I did this with Anthem about there video switch and scaling upgrade before it was released. They talked freely about the specifics I inquired about. That’s also where I heard that Denon’s HDMI is stellar. Anthem was testing the HDMI from all sorts of manfs for compatibility with their video switch/scaler.