WELL THAT SETTLES THAT THEN.Obviously the best of the best.  Better fo!

Well, I'm just getting started as an AR enthusiast. With that said, I have limited experience with the various brands. So far, I have a S&W M&P, which is a very nice lower with integral trigger guard. The Bolt catch fits a bit too loose in the lower to suit me, but nothing I can't live with. I have a Ruger 556 and I like it too. And, I have had my share of PSA lowers and uppers. I will say that the S&W and Ruger seem better than the PSA, but that is just me. Next, I bought a Spike's Crusader lower, and it was of superb quality, compared to all my others; the lower kit went in flawlessly and it is my favorite AR now. I also purchased an Aero lower that was not supposed to be a blem, but had some very small dimples/dings in the finish; I think the seller (an FFL dealer) bought it as a blem and sold it as a non-blem, but I don't want to falsely accuse anyone.

Not to be undone, I sanded the dimples out of the Aero lower, bead-blasted it, and used some Lauer DuraBake firearm finish and it turned out great... no dimples, and a good, tough finish. That project turned out well, and it too is one of my favorite ARs now. Also, besides the dimples, the Aero seemed to be good quality.

None of those lowers were mentioned as upper tier, and I am new to the AR scene, but I'm learning fast!

The 'budget' lowers tend to be the ones that have the most issues whether it's being bought in bulk from the forgers are 'slightly defective' and they attempt to fix them and send them out or whatever it is they do. Brands like Anderson and PSA - who blow out their product for the price of a large pizza - are the ones that are littering the market but also are hit or miss. I have one Anderson in the fleet and planned to buy more when I was just getting started until I read the stories. I decided to spend a little more and get something more reputable. It's night and day comparing quality, fit and finish and even overall aesthetics and I'm comparing apples to apples here; forged lower versus forged lower.

Moral of the story: Spend the money now and be happy versus spending half and being discouraged.

In my limited experience I have been very happy with RRA lowers.
No casting flash or debris in holes, dimensionally correct, finish excellent, work with a variety of mags, and fit well with a variety of uppers.

^^ this.

+2 on RRA lowers. Fit tight to every upper I have mated mine with.

not every lower has its own sticky explaining it's characteristics.

Buy an Anderson or Aero lower and put the extra $ saved into the trigger.  A roll mark won't make you a better shooter.

An upper tier lower is the one with the better trigger, generally.

Palmetto State Armory is good enough for me; but, I do have a DPMS I need to build.

Buy an Aero Precision. It's a quality lower.
You could pay more for bling if that's what your looking for.

If you want billet.. I have no experience with them but I will tell you I don't think it's worth paying more for a softer Aluminum.

Just buy the Aero and build your rifle.

I have had Andersons, seekins,  Colt, rock river, spikes,  and many others. Without looking at them I couldn't tell one from the other.

The funny thing is. I can build a $2000 precision rifle build and people will ask what lower I have?

Trigger? Barrel? BCG? It blows my mind. It's like women and their purses. They have to have a $400 bag so they can fit in with their friends.

I have an Anderson that is about perfect and has better machining and finish than a Spikes, Colt or LMT.

I also have an Anderson that is a little bit rough.

I have a Colt look like dog poo as far as finishing is concerned, lot of machining marks and flashing left.

I have seen Megas that where also soso.

You best bet is to find a LGS that you can look the lowers.

Anderson ($50) and Colt ($150) are both machined from Cerro forgings.  I can guaranty there is not $100 more machining done to the Colt, actually from the flashing left, Colt does less machining

I would look at a SMOS lower

http://www.smosarms.com/collections/lower-receivers

But....they're upside down?  I can't shoot upside down!!

I've been impressed with Aero Precision sets.

I don't care about roll marks. If it works, it's good to go IMO. I have Spikes, Anderson and PSA (blems and non-blems)....all have been great. With zero issues building as many lowers as I and my brothers have, I have zero qualms going with an inexpensive forged lower. I have not seen anything to incite me to pay extra.

That being said, if you want special features that come with some of the really high end ones and it's worth it, knock yourself out. I prefer to keep all my AR's stock...the same selector, same bolt release, etc. I don't want to have to think about which one I have in my hands at any given time. Practice with one, it's valid for all. But that's just me.

It depends,
How much of a snob are you?
You guys don't know how lucky you are, all of today's lower receivers fit & function & the finish is excellent. In the 80's I remember ENDLESS filing to get an aftermarket (and there were only 3-4 aftermarket producers of AR parts) upper to fit & function on a lower, then you were lucky if the hammer didn't get caught on the carrier & jam up the rifle due to out of spec hole locations in the lower. Building a non Colt AR that worked correctly was a crapshoot.

An "upper tier" lower is only as good as the upper you place it on, IMO.  I'm very anal about upper/lower fit and finish.  I've bought miss matched upper/lowers to save money and ended up selling because I just couldn't stand the fit/finish of the combo.  My two current AR's are DD and BCM and both were built from the factory with amazing fit/finish.  If I was going to build my own AR, I would probably get receiver sets from Mega, BAD, 2A, Noveske, BCM, or DD.  And, from my understanding, the latter two are not sold as receiver sets but can be found on the EE sometimes.

Buy what YOU like .

I'll bite. Lightest first.
Best fit and finish. I'd say those two should be separated. Fit as in rattle vs. no rattle? Important. Finish can always be redone and I don't know of any company that puts out a product with a glaringly bad finish.
Most appealing to the eye... not of major importance although I'll shamefully admit that some company logos actually turn me off of the idea of their product. Fro example, I can't get past the Spike's touching penises.

I'd lie if I said I didn't care about the rollmark. Not necessarily the "who" but what it looks like. No Spikes for me and no Anderson. Some of my favorite receivers are no logos from McKay Enterprises. I am partial to the KAC and Noveske rollmarks though.

Me too, when I get out of this commie state I am going to find myself one marked like this!
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