Chicago Faucets has always been a great combination of a good price and the most solid quality, and still is. Continuously.
To me, it seems other companies rode on their reputation to carry them through a few years when they weren't as good.
Some of the mid-range of the US market: American Standard, Eljer, Elkay, PricePfister, Moen and Delta.
In each of these companies' offerings there can be great products and others that are so-so.
Any company can buy any other company so these or others might now be controlled from Germany or China or...
Also, several of these apparently US companies now own a bunch of subsidiaries that appear to be foreign or local.
Elkay and A/S own a number of other makes, and Delta (Masco) has so many companies you never know what synergies they are making happen, or not. Hansgrohe has been part of Masco for ten years now. Brizo, Peerless and Ginger are Masco and many others. I think Geberit bought Chicago Faucets long ago.
The House brands to avoid also include Danze (who make Glacier Bay and Pegasus) since they have those ethics from China that allow them to walk away from anything they ever built.
Perhaps Kohler is so well marketed that it gets discussed here in a thread all to its own, but it offers no specific advantage, and sometimes their parts or sizing are indeed just a little "hinky" or strange. I think there were Kohler tubs made with the overflow hole just a little too large to allow you to install easily any other manufacturer's tub overflow product (although still possible), so for those who knew about that problem in advance it created obvious bias towards the Kohler product and for those who didn't know it, it created aggravation (punishment) when they came to installing someone else's product. Same thing today: the K-6227 (new in 2009) faucet requires one non-standard hole to be drilled into your kitchen counter (2.1" diameter) so you are stuck later when you think of replacing it ...
Personally I would think a lot about product features and style I wanted, and then find other makes that have similar product. Then, post about it in a forum here to get ideas from that starting point, to help choose "the one" company