I went and phoned up a eight authorized Pioneer dealers on friday morning. One dealer had just replenished his Pioneer stock a few days earlier. Had only one 1014 in stock. I went in and bought it from the store manager. His salesmen seemed to be oblivous to this model.
I don't know how much truth there is in the manager's statements; They receive one or two units a month and never advertise the 1014 model. He usually sells the unit within a couple of weeks of receiving it. The 1014 is not listed in his price sheets, this is what I heard from other dealers as well.
I was looking at the Onkyo 602 initially but read many forum threads praising the 1014 and it being better then the 602. It is apparently more equal to the Onkyo 702. I'll see in the next few days.
Cheers.