So, a few weeks ago I bought the upgrade from Sonar X1 to X3 for £63.07 inc VAT.
Today I am offered the upgrade to Sonar Platinum for £118.80 inc VAT.
That's a total price of £181.87.
Yet if I had not upgraded to X3, only a couple of weeks ago,  I could have upgraded for about £158 inc VAT!

Contact Cakewalk sales. I heard there were a lot more people like you.

Send Cakewalk an email they might negotiate with you. It's not unheard of.

With X3... Update X2->X3 had originally AD1 included. Those who have registered it at "lucky time" have got AD2 upgrade for free, other could get it with great discount while most of early adopters had to pay full upgrade price (and they have payed more for X3 originally). All that was a matter of weeks. It is just "bad luck"....
 
I think one of the reasons for the new model is to avoid such frustration in the future. While I doubt there is going to be 70% sales, whenever you upgrade/extend membership you are sure next 12 month goodies are yours. 

I have contacted support. We'll see what they come back with.
I don't accept that this is just 'bad luck' - it is bad business. £23 is a big deal to me but not to Cakewalk.
I hope the new subscription model does stop this inequality, but they could have made they're numbers add up before this.

I feel exactly the same way. This is the third time this happens. Every time there is a good upgrade email offer is because a new version is coming next week! I always pay to upgrade to an outdated version. Despite all investment I've made on Sonar I am seriously considering switching to a different DAW that does not make me feel like an idiot twice a year.

mbarsott
I feel exactly the same way. This is the third time this happens. Every time there is a good upgrade email offer is because a new version is coming next week!

Why else would there be a sale ?  People who wait(ed) till the end of the version get a good price, but the new version always comes out shortly after.  I upgraded before the very end on a lesser sale just to be sure.  I still got a great price but I could have saved another 15$ if I'd waited some more.  Or I could have lost everything.  It's always a gamble, and was kind of fun to play.
 
You didn't get ripped off.  You got a great price on X3.
 

If something cost $150, why you expect you get it for $70 without some "dark side" of the deal?
 
Also note, that in case you do X1/2->X3 and then X3->Platinum, you first get AD2 and then another 3 adPacks for it. In case of direct upgrade X1->Platinum, you have less content in AD2 in total.

Everyone who upgraded X1 - X2 - X3 - Platinum  (and didn't deliberately update late to out of date versions) paid way more than you.  Why exactly do you feel cheated?

This is not a bunch of old cars they have to get rid off for pennies. It is software for download. There is no stock whatsoever. IMHO, marketing would be better off keeping their customers happy by giving a good deal on the new version on release, than doing a sale of an old version they are just about to replace and then the next week offering one more deal. From the previous posts I am sure there was a lot of customers that felt cheated. Actually I wanted to start a thread about it, but guess what? I entered the Forum and figured other people felt the same way: the thread was here, already. 
I am not so sure I was not ripped off. I definitely feel like I was. I will keep using Sonar, but the next time a good crossgrade offer comes by, I will definitely take it instead of upgrading to New Sonar. I would like to know how another professional DAW compares, and especially how their marketing strategy compares. I have spent more money on IK Multimedia plugins than on all Sonar versions combined, and I never felt cheated by them. Not even once.
Oh darn! I challenged myself that I would not complain about anything for a week... back to zero on my challenge.