Thanks for everyon'e feedback!
The deal for the Denon DVD player was $300. It isn't brand new, but rather a trade in. The player looks phenomenal, as if it was never even taken out of the box. There are absolutely no scratches of any kind anywhere on the device (front, back, sides, bottom.....anywhere), which is what made me take notice as I've never purchased a trade-in item before - not that you can't get good deals on one.
I purchased the DVD player last night (with a 10 day return poilcy if I wasn't satisfied) and set it up at home. Though I haven't been able to play with all the functions yet, I did put a couple DVD's in and noticed an immediate difference in sound quality! I was floored by the difference from my old Sony player to this one. The picture quality is also better, but not as dramatic a diference as the audio quality.
Based on everyone's feedback regarding the 2200 model, do you think it's worth picking one up and trying it out? Any idea if I would notice any additional improvements?