Before I bought the RX-V 1500 I did a lot of research on both the HTR and RX-V lines and compared them against the Pioneer 1015. There really isn't one that matches up perfectly against it but the closest would probably be the RX-V757. The key element missing is the THX Select 2 processing. You do lose a little powerwise but only about 10w per channel (note the THD specifications which might mislead you into thinking the 1015 is more powerful). It really comes down to how much you value the THX processing, and a bit more power. For the price the 1015 is hard to beat and it has a loyal following in here, but if you're partial to Yamaha I don't think you would be sacrificing anything noticeable with the 757.
As far as the THX processing on the 1500, I tend to use the CinemaDSP fields far more often than the THX Select processing... I do tend to question how much value you should place on it.