what are the superior "brands" of the AR15?

Wilson Combat
Noveske
Nemo
Daniel Defense

DD
Colt,..yeah.

H&K

If we're excluding the 4k+ rifles like Nemo and JP, the top 3 are

Noveske
Larue
KAC

I know I will probably get bashed by some but I think Colt has seen better days. I bought a 6951 9mm AR last year and it should have never passed QC and left the factory. The barrel nut was loose enough to cause an out of battery charge. There was more thsn enough play in the barrel to cause major issues. The flash hider wasn't even hand tight and their were tool marks all over the lower. Luckily I inspect every gun that I buy before firing it.
Colts solution was to send the gun back and the would get it back to me in 6-8 weeks. Needless to say I will never buy another. They had known issues with the barrel blanks on the 9mm AR's and instead of stopping production and fixinghe issues the sold them and dealt with the issues post sale. Pretty shitty if you ask me.

I've been in the market for an AR10 for a couple months now and have been doing lots of research. It came down to the SCAR 17S and the Black Rain Ordnance PG-15. I decided to go with the BRO, they are a solid USA company and all components of the gun are made by BRO, it is also a pretty sweet looking gun. The review I saw it shot a 3/4" group at 100 yds and an 11" group at 1000 yds. Also during a 2000 round test of Wolf ammo the first malfunction wasn't until 1700 rounds. They also offer a pretty large line of AR15's. Def worth checking out imo. Mine should be here the end of this week, I'll let you know how I like it.

H&K
LWRCI

I'm sure the usual suspects are listed (and I didn't read the whole thread, sorry) - but a custom build is going to be both more expensive and "superior" to almost any stock rifle.

Every shooter is different. The lower receiver (what ATF thinks of as the "rifle") is probably the least important ingredient in the stew. For the most accurate shooting AR (within the same caliber, of course), the 3 key pieces are the barrel, trigger and optics - and there are literally millions of different configurations.

So, the "superior" brand is the combination of parts that allow you to shoot the most accurately.