I used to do some session work at a radio station who had a pro tools set up.
 
Their set up was worth 10's of thousands of dollars.
I talked to their engineer a lot and he was like 'You have to get Pro Tools to do anything'
So I assumed that a decent home set up was never going to be affordable.
 
Then one day I went to a friends house to do some recording in his home studio - He had an old version of Sonar  (Was Sonar 2 I think)
 
What we recorded in his basic home studio with a $500 interface and some Behringer V-Amps turned out just as good as anything I had done at the radio station. 
It was a real eye opener.
 
 

Three years ago I was switching from ZOOM HD8 standalone to DAW and eventually faced the decision between Sonar, Cubase and Reaper. I was not much aware of other DAWs, heard that Ableton is rather for live dance and knew that ProTools is ridiculously overpriced. I made a decision to go with Sonar just because my audio interface was Edirol, at that time much associated with Cakewalk. Time showed I was lucky to make a good decision but based on little thinking. Most of new users will make theirs decisions based on a little thinking too, YT clip, ad, forum posts, etc.   I suppose Sonar will get a recognition it deserves when Tascam comes up with a killer audio interface and/or there is a multiplatinum worldwide bestseller CD entirely mixed and mastered in Sonar.

I've been a sonar user since sonar 4. I've found during the past decade that any - and pretty much all - the reasons for any mixes I've churned out being substandard are the result of my skillset - not the software.  Upgrading my ad da - and outboard gear has made a signifigant improvement for certain... however - the DAW itself is a wonderful work in progress.
 
Apple Snobbery - after having to log into every stupid device with an itunes password, reset it every three months, authorize clouds... jump through every stupid hoop just to check email, there is no chance I would EVER subject my business or creative musings to that kind of frustrations...  Did anyone else get tons of emails everytime apple updates their os and nothing works on it?  More like Apple Bobbery... Slobbery...?

Pleased to say there is not a single Apple device anywhere in my house & studio and never will be.
 
I did a lot of reading & research when I was DAW shopping many years ago and eventually settled on Sonar, mainly due to what I had read about the user forum.
 
In retrospect, I think this was an enlightened decision.