I just went through this in the 30" all-gas category. As a bit of background, I love to cook and would personally choose a true commercial range, if I could get it safely installed in a residence and someone to clean it for me. Neither are the case.

My personal opinions are as follows:

* There is no such thing as a "real" convection oven that is gas fired that comes close to what convention does in a commercial setting.

* The "warming drawers" or "second ovens" that are out there are just something else to go wrong and look, to me, to be incredibly energy inefficient. My toaster oven looks better insulated. The ones I saw just have an electric element under or over the drawer and the drawers are just stamped.

* The 5-burner tops now in vogue are gimmicky as you can't put much of anything on that 5th burner.

* There is a wide variance in burner-to-burner spacing, with the better ones about 16" side-to-side and 10" front-to-back. 10" means a 12" fry pan will just hit an 8" sauce pan on the back burner.

All that said:

* The only non-prosumer range that I've recently seen that I liked was the current Frigidaire FGGF3042KF -- $800 last week at Lowe's (at least in SF, CA). It does have a 5th burner and the front-to-back spacing is only 9", but at the price-point, very attractive.

* I found the GEs didn't provide *me* any significant benefits for basically twice the price.

* Neither the Frigidaire nor the GEs provided me much over my nearly-dead Caloric as far as cooking utility goes. Ok, ok, they do light without using a sparker or match and the knobs aren't in the line of fire under a 12" fry pan... (In fact, the Caloric simmers lower than the NRX, American Range, and Thermador.)

* The NXR was incredibly attractive at the $2000 price. I can forgive most of the cosmetic issues, but the top has too many seams in the sheet-metal work, especially the small pockets in the corners of the raised plate in the center of the 30" unit, to collect grime that are basically uncleanable. It seems to be a piece designed to a price gap, probably good if you can forgive its flaws.

* The American Range 30" piece at about $3000 ended up being our choice as the least expensive prosumer range that was easily cleanable.

That GE cafe is not very nice looking in my opinion. And it is pricy. The bottom oven is a true oven. I was reading on the GE site on the PDF download on operating instructions because I was looking at it too, it has good ratings. It says the bottom oven is is a true oven but it is best for pizzas, frozen foods, casseroles, buns, etc. It can handle up to 4" in height. This could be a good thing. I think they tried to make this oven do too much...5th burner and 2 ovens?

I would go with the NXR.

Sfjeff...any other cosmetic issues other than the seams on the top? When you say uncleanable...why? I never owned a SS oven, but is SS hard to clean? Does it remotely compare with the high end stuff...like your American, Viking, etc?

Is it a "nice" looking stove? I read mixed comments on this.

The NXR is not a "single piece" top, but consists of a left, right, and center section. The center section is between the two grates and has a full-length edge of the S/S on both sides, as well as sort of tucking in and under the front and back of the range. The edge is pretty bad, but when it tucks in front and back, there are too many nooks for my taste where grime would be nearly unremovable without a high-pressure steam hose, or something close to it. You can sort of see it on the linked PDF in the picture on the bottom right.

S/S, by itself, isn't bad. You can't go at it with old-school scouring powder and a green 3M pad like you might have with an aged porcelain top, but it is manageable. (I'm a fan of Barkeeper's Friend as a very mild abrasive, when needed) My concerns about the NXR are all about geometry, not material.

If you touch one, you quickly realize that it is not quite as nicely made as the $3,000-$7,000 pieces. Just little things. Its a lot like comparing a 1980s Honda to a 2009 BMW -- the Honda is a great little car, you know it will get you where you need to go, but it just isn't in the same league for quality of materials or fit and finish. They've very carefully changed their story about origin of the piece to how the burners are German engineered and how certain parts come from the US. No matter how you wrap it, it's clearly a Chinese knock-off of the high-end home ranges targeted at the "hole" between mass-market pieces (which I put the GE into, even at its high price) and the "pro-style" pieces.

If I felt that I could keep it clean easily, would I have owned one? With the American at $3500, probably yes; the AR isn't nearly "twice the range" as the NXR. With the available at $2900 -- the difference in price split out over 5 years was $1 a day and hard not to choose the AR for me. (We ended up doing the same thing again and going with the 36" AR for the larger oven and additional useful burner with another generation growing up and about ready to start coming over for dinner.)

"Nice looking" -- Hmmm... Not "sexy" to my eye, nor does it have the business-like look of the American Range pieces. Certainly not even close to the showcase-home look of the supposed "pro" ranges that, in my opinion, have become more about style and status than they are about cooking performance.

Here is a link that might be useful: NXR 3001 Spec Sheet