upgrade my Receiver?

Hi, I'm making the move to HD and will be getting a nice plasma panel and progressive scan DVD with HDMI.

I currently have a Denon AVR 1800 that's a few years old. Is this sufficient, or should I bite the bullet and get a new one of these, too.

BTW, I know everyone loves Denon, but I have found mine really hard to use and lacking in sound processing effects for music.

Anyone have any experiences with Harmon Kardon?

Is auto speaker configuration a worthwhile feature?

H/K are pretty good but Denon and Yamaha have high end receivers.