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Trust me, you don't want the Aktis remote. Both the Aktis which comes with the 4802 (I own one) and the newer remote which comes with the 4802R and the 3803 are less than happy clickers. The Aktis requires lots of paging to operate the amp and the RC-921 is of the "lots of little buttons all the same size with labels which are impossible to read" school. Neither one is very good and which is "crappier" is a matter of taste. Since I'm a well known "Prontoholic" I would recommend a member of the Pronto family is you like touchscreens (like the Aktis which comes with the 4802) or a Home Theater Master MX-500 or MX-700 if you like hard buttons.
Other than that, the only upgrade the 4802R seems to have is THX Ultra 2 certification. This seems to be a rather minimal upgrade. If you are interested in a good deal in an upper end Denon receiver, you might take a look at the 3803. It lacks THX Ultra 2 (and garden THX) certification, but the amp is plenty powerful enough if you have reasonable efficient speakers which are easy to drive (no bad impedance drops or reactive components to the load). It does have a superior preamp to the 4802 series -- and the 4802 was no slouch. Denon did however drop the price of the 4802R by a few hundred so it is a better deal than the old one (although the 4802 was a really smokin' amp). As always, listen first, but both the 4802R (which has the same preamp and power amp sections as the 4802) and the 3803 are really nice amps.
--John
Isn\'t Theory a great place? Everything works there.
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