The title is somewhat true but its also a bit of fun. Seriously though. I recently picked up Samplitude Pro X2. I have being playing with it and the other day I loaded a song I did in Sonar; a stereo wave file into Sam and played it in the wave editor. Everything was there but it sounded a little dull. Also its stereo image didn't have a nice broad sound. Because it sounded so insipid I closed Sam and opened Sonar loaded the same file and played it back. It did not sound dull it sounded great.  The stereo image was superb.
 
I don't know why this was true there were no plugins in either program. I bring this up because I found this awhile back. http://recording.org/threads/sonar-x1-sound-quality-vs-samplitude-pro-x.50528/
 
I don't think that blog is well done but the conclusion is also hard to believe. What do you all think?  

It is always reassuring to know that we are on "the right" team

There's a blast from the past.  I would suspect a difference in pan laws, or something more subjective -  like you like the sonar gui more. I find a lot of music appreciation is aided by visual cues. i have a little laptop with a big screen receiving an output from my headphone amp into a visualizer application to provide visual stimulation when I am creating (loose term for making noise). Adds immensely to the experience. My version of the old lava lamp.

Scratch pan laws - i see it's a stereo mix
 

None of these "DAW X sounds different to DAW Y" claims are ever backed up with science.

Brando
There's a blast from the past.  I would suspect a difference in pan laws, or something more subjective -  like you like the sonar gui more. I find a lot of music appreciation is aided by visual cues. i have a little laptop with a big screen receiving an output from my headphone amp into a visualizer application to provide visual stimulation when I am creating (loose term for making noise). Adds immensely to the experience. My version of the old lava lamp.

You may have a point. I really don't know why there was a sonic difference. Its funny though that you bring that up because if you know where the 20 to 40% comes from it was about pan laws. CW actually redid there pan laws to allow for different ones when that thread was posted. 

sharke
None of these "DAW X sounds different to DAW Y" claims are ever backed up with science.

They shouldn't. I agree.  But I did hear a noticeable difference in favor of Sonar. Please don't  ask me why.

Sonar Platinum is actually analog. Don't tell anyone..

Perhaps Sonar was playing at a slightly louder volume, or 24 bit vs 16 bit, Samplitude accidentally summed to mono (that would actually exactly make it sound "dull and lifeless"), something like that. Samplitude is a pretty professional package, I've used it in the studio where I went to school. I've never noticed it sounding any less than the other DAWs they had and I had.

Sanderxpander
Perhaps Sonar was playing at a slightly louder volume, or 24 bit vs 16 bit, Samplitude accidentally summed to mono (that would actually exactly make it sound "dull and lifeless"), something like that. Samplitude is a pretty professional package, I've used it in the studio where I went to school. I've never noticed it sounding any less than the other DAWs they had and I had.

The file is 24 bits. Your other points are good ones too. I will check them out. However, it was producing a stereo output. I could tell by the meters on my mixer.