Well I know I will be slammed for saying the "N" word around here, but IMO your only real choice to get a nice stove for $2000 or less is the 30" NXR.

Has excellent closed, double stack burners that are ALL 15K BTU and ALL go down to a very low simmer.
Very nice heavy duty cast iron grates, the entire stove top, and all 4 sides is 304 stainless.
The door is very nice, heavy, excellent hinges and stays cool to the touch even after hours of baking at 350+.
It is a convection oven and has an infrared broiler.

The oven racks are heavy duty, well made, unfortunately not ball bearing roller type but still slide fairly easily even after being hot.

For less than $2000 there isn't another range that even comes close.
We got ours for $1799.00 delivered, the usual price we always see is $1999.00

A range with commercial type true open burners is way out of your price range.

Sealed burners and old fashioned semi-open burners are available in your price range. Sealed is probably your best bet given the choices.

You can buy a dual-fuel 36" Smeg Opera A1U6 for $2k in anthracite,glossy black,cream,glossy red wine,or genuine 304 SS. Sealed gas burners plus electric oven. Made in Italy.

For $2499 you can buy an American made Five Star TTN2607BW 30" 304 SS gas range with old fashioned semi-open burners.

The NXR mentioned above is made in China and now uses the cheaper more prone to rust 420 SS.If you look at these in a store you can see there is a color difference between it and other pro-style gas ranges. Sheet metal is thinner too.The made in Germany burners are very nice in this price class though.

lauraWi: you might want to take your largest/most used pots/pans to the store and see how they fit on top & in the oven too.(hey you are spending almost 2K so you might as well see how it fits w/ your method of cooking) Just from listening to my friends I would look at the grates that cover the entire top, might be easier to move pots around with the entire stove top covered.

as for grates you can buy a center grate for the NXR IF that means anything to you, I prefer it open because with the NXR there is really no need to be moving pots/pans around because every burner is the same. If I want a large pot on the back burner to simmer then I can slide it straight back on the same side if needed. Or better yet just start it on the back burner in the first place.

Center grate for me personally would just be in the way of cleaning and serve no purpose.

As for pot size any kind of "pro style" type stove is going to be better than your basic $500-$1300 stove burner arrangement.

I can fit a 10" in the back and 12" up front or visa versa and also a 10" pot in back and 14" Wok up front.
Also a nice 14"X23" steel griddle fits over 2 burners front to back perfectly.

As for the usual spiel about the NXR "made" in China is basically is NOT.
It is mostly "Assembled" in China like about 95% of everything we now own is.
All the critical parts are some of the best range parts you can buy, Burners the exact same as Wolf made in Germany, Hinges made in Italy, all the gas valves from Invensys in the United States, the infrared broiler & igniters are from Saint Gobain in Milford, New Hampshire.
Convection fan from Germany and so on.
So it is not just the "burners" that are nice, it is virtually every critical part on it.

These parts are then assembled in China and because of that you can get a VERY nice stove for under $2000.
IF these are now made of 430 stainless they are NOT going to rust, that is basically nonsense.

I know ours is 304 SS and I know that every single distributor says they are made of 304 SS still.
I just sent an email to Durocorp to find out what the deal is.
Basically there is nothing wrong with 430 SS either.
As for it "rusting" unless you have your kitchen outside or you live on a boat and you never bother to wipe down your stove ever then it is NOT going to rust.

I cant even find what other stoves like the Blue Star and Wolf, CC etc are made of, they just say stainless.

IF these are now made of 430 stainless they are NOT going to rust, that is basically nonsense.

This is basically nonsense. Fact is 420 SS contains 6-8% less chromium and is more prone to rust and is therefore cheaper. 430 is worse and less heat resistant.

It is mostly "Assembled" in China like about 95% of everything we now own is.

95% of the crap is now made in China.

Most of the stuff I own is not made in China.

Most years over 60% of recalled itmes are made in China.

All the critical parts are some of the best range parts you can buy

95% of counterfeit goods are made in China.

If you believe and trust this three year old Chinese company and their 7 year old grill making Chinese parent company then go ahead and buy this range.

Except that it is "430" stainless and not 420. (assuming they even switched to 430)
and the Chromium difference is actually only at most 2%.
it is 16-16.5% for the 430 and 18% for the 304.

Is it as good overall a 304? NO

But in all honesty you probably would never see the difference. 430 SS is not going to rust in the application of a kitchen stove.
In a outdoor BBQ that is poorly maintained or in a salt water environment yes.

Already bought this range and love it, had it for over 10 months without a single issue, cooks wonderfully, snap to clean, for under $2000 NOTHING comes even remotely close.
We could not have touched any other stove that would have been "as good" as this one for anything less than at least $1000 more. We paid $1799.
Every stove we looked at at the time almost a year ago were not even as nice until you got to around the $2800+ level.

And like the OP we were not about to spend more than $2000 on a stove, in fact we went over our budget at $1800 by at least $300. BUT for that extra $300 we got 10X the stove so it was worth it.

Sadly you have the same incoherent issues that many people back in the early days of "Made in Japan" had.
Now we all know that Made in Japan is not bad in fact some the better items especially electronics, TVs, Cameras and cars are "Made in Japan". But the items that US companies hired Japan to make THOSE are the items that were crap, but it had to do with the crap that the US manufacturers wanted Japan to make for cheap.

China is basically the same now.
If something comes out of China that is cheaply made it is BECAUSE the US company told them the specs and to make it that way in order to make the cheapest manure possible to sell to the American public.
They are only doing as they are hired to do.
It is still the US Companies that are making the crap though.

For us it is a non issue because we bought the older model that is definitely 304 SS.

Maybe you should just let people that OWN this stove and use it everyday comment on it since apparently your main gripe is that it is simply "assembled" in China which is really a non issue in reality.

You are certainly entitled to your own opinion, just not your own facts.

Thanks for the replies to date. We know that we can't afford a commercial grade range, but were hoping to find something decent in the mass market sect. While the NSX is pretty, I do worry about overall quality and Made/Assembled in China is something that we, as a family do try to avoid if we can.

So at this point, I'm looking in the Electrolux, Bosch (heard their convection ovens could heat unevenly?), Kitchen Aid, Kenmore range. Would love slide out racks as long as they actually work. Self cleaning is not really important to me. I think that having solid grates on the top would be handy. I would like SS since that's what we've been moving our appliances to -- the huge white refrigerator is next!

Not sure if you can find an Electrolux in your price range.
We had the 30" Elux Icon Oven for 5 years now, no problems whatsover, and those fully gliding out racks still work smooth as silk, just like the day they left the factory.

They sure came in handy at Thanksgiving with a 22 lb Turkey.
So Yep!!! The slide out racks work!!!!, and in fact Elux was the first to offer them.

Then along came Miele and Wolf with the glide out racks, maybe NXR will get around to them too?

I'll stay out of the China debate, I try to buy US whenever possible, but Wolf and SZ "To Me" are not worth the dollars they command, so we took a lil "Side trip to Sweden" (Elux),
but we did stay in the US for the Fridge, Jenn-air, rated #1 for reliability in 2005 and it still is (SxS and Integrated).

Good luck on the hunt!

Gary

deeageaux: "For $2499 you can buy an American made Five Star TTN2607BW 30" 304 SS gas range with old fashioned semi-open burners."
For my knowledge and other readers of this thread, must these ranges vent to the outside ?thank you.

I don't think there are any household ranges available that vent to the outside. HOWEVER, you may be required by local building codes to have an externally vented exhaust hood installed with any high btu range. If you cook a lot of stuff at high heats, or anything which generates a lot of smoke, steam, or aerosol grease, you will want such exhaust capability, whether it is required by code or not.