Pioneer is right there with Yamaha,Denon, Onkyo and the rest of the.. Panasonic,imo is a step below. Nobody says the others suck as much as the first three i listed are the ones most bought i think. I think Kenwood,Panasonic,JVC to name a few would be a step down but for maybe the top reciever in each of those lines but i'm not sure on that. There's nothing wrong with the lower ones,its just the others are better just like there are higher end lines better the the first few i listed and would be a step down from those. Now if i'm full of it,i'm sure somebody will let you know as this is just mo.