I agree, there is no need to spend $2799 but I will say this. I've gone though the same upgrade,room addition sceanarios and auditioned every major brand of HT in the past 20 years and for the money nothing comes close to the Anthem AVR's. If you audition an Anthem you will kick the Denon's,Marantz etc to the curb and never look back. I don't like complicated, selling the Denon and going the one box route with the Anthem is simply a suggestion that would acheive in my opinion a better outcome with fewer points of possible failure than what has thus far been suggested for what could be a wash going with the previous gen top of the line MRX for $2799 selling the Denon,not to mention ARC will be included which is light years ahead of Audyessey, and the comparable to ARC DIRAC upgrade is $349 but with Anthem the room correction is included. Also,DIRAC is not done with getting into your pocket at $349...you have to buy the mike and stand separately so you are really at about $500 for DIRAC. Cost and value are two different things.
We are all simply offering suggestions and in my case perspective based on personal experience not something I read about in a reveiw.