I went with Onkyo's tx-nr7100. It has the zone 2 and is 9.2 with dirac live. The only thing its missing is the preouts for an additional amp. I wasn't willing to pay 600$ more to get that. Still no regrets. I almost went with the denon you listed but have always had Onkyo's and stuck to the familiar. Accessories4less has very good deals on all these receivers. Give them a look if you haven't yet.
Redx
joined 2 years ago
I took the free upgrade. Then after a bit I updated my bios and it killed my license. Microsoft wouldn't fix it and said I changed my hardware so there was nothing they could do. Still pissed off about that.
About 15 years ago I was promoted to a dept manager position at Walmart. They rented out a conference room at a nearby hotel and had this whole anti union training. I really didn't think much of it at the time being as young as I was... but it was pretty much just like this poster. Telling us to report if we seen or heard any talk of organization of a union. Kind of shitty of a thing for a company to do now that I looks back on this.
In high school I wanted to be an architect. Graduated and went on to struggling for years working in retail til I finally had enough and went to college. Found out quickly that there was zero demand in my area for that and pivoted to being a mechanical engineer. I now have 13 years of doing that and am glad I went that option as I can go anywhere in the world with this skill set.
I read that about the texture as well. Don't know about this version but like I said I have a red one and it's smooth looking just like your picture. Also, my bad... says mine is a caladium. 
Looks like a heart to heart plant that I have but mines red. Philodendron Gloriosum
Working fine for me using connect.
I paired this up with Klipsch 5.1.2 speakers which adorama has on sale often for 750$... Then added 2 more in ceiling Atmos speakers. Pretty nice setup for the price.