Yup, I somehow made it on "the list".   First time for everything... 
 
I only installed SONAR itself, the Anderton FX and the Help & Tutorials portions, but overall the download and install process using CC was very smooth.   I had never had a problem with the traditional installer since I knew where everything was in the Advanced installer dialog, but this felt... well, more 21st century if that makes sense, both graphically and functionally.   Oh, and there's a gear icon that opens settings - found that after the install was done (though I use the defaults anyway).
 
After the download and installation was complete, maybe 15 minutes total on a wireless connection across the other side of the house from the modem, I opened SONAR to start poking around.   The first thing I discovered is that I really, really like the Control Bar enhancements.   Scrolling back and forth with the mouse wheel was wonderful.  And then, after testing different combinations of collapsed and sized modules, I realized that I may not even need to scroll.   And I really liked scrolling.   What a quandary to have.     Oh, and maybe it's a placebo effect, but I think some of the text may be just a little lighter than X3.
 
I didn't have much time to play so tried the new FX Bin and Sends enhancements, which are both very convenient.  Much better IMO.  One thing I didn't see pushed very much up to this point is how all plugin windows now open in the same location.  So I dragged my active plugin window to a second monitor, and every plugin I clicked on from that point opened in the same location.  Again, convenient.
 
The last thing I did was check out some of the Anderton collection.  Some of the Amp Sims are very nice and do react well when using the guitar's (Strat in my case) volume knob. And the UIs are slick.   The environmental FX Chains; wind, rain, etc., are also pretty cool.
 
The last thing I wanted to note was that after the installation was complete I closed CC, disconnected from the internet, and started SONAR as mentioned above.   But when I went to Save I could not - my copy was not activated.   So I reconnected and logged back on again to check my account.  Everything seemed to be OK, and the only activation info I could find was for the offline method.   Weird.   So I restarted SONAR to try again (while still connected to the internet) and suddenly the toast pop-up opened saying that SONAR was activated.  I'm not entirely sure what to make of that but thought I'd throw it out there just as an FYI...  
 
And that's where my initial report ends.   A 30 second hiccup in an otherwise very positive first experience.  
 
 

If you had never run SONAR after installation, and disconnected from the internet what you describe is expected. SONAR couldn't activate so you are in demo mode. However once that is done you should now be able to disconnect from the net and use it normally.

>>Oh, and maybe it's a placebo effect, but I think some of the text may be just a little lighter than X3.
 
It's not placebo. I did a comparison. They increased the contrast on the Control Bar in SONAR 2015.1

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]
If you had never run SONAR after installation, and disconnected from the internet what you describe is expected. SONAR couldn't activate so you are in demo mode. However once that is done you should now be able to disconnect from the net and use it normally.

Thanks for confirming, Noel.   I figured that might be the case after the fact but couldn't be sure.
 

stickman393
>>Oh, and maybe it's a placebo effect, but I think some of the text may be just a little lighter than X3.
 
It's not placebo. I did a comparison. They increased the contrast on the Control Bar in SONAR 2015.1

Cool!  I hadn't compared to X3 but just found myself being able to read things a little easier.   Good to know that I wasn't imagining things.     Also good to know that the Bakers had made this change, no matter how minor.
 

I thought it looked crisper but I also chalked it up to placebo.  

Platinum High Five! *slap*
 
If you do your own backup vocals or track people doing backup vocals? VocalSync is straight killer! And the fact that you can slice up clips and use it to sync other instruments to one another; or alternatively as I have started calling it, you can sync-mangle parts to create something interesting or weird, in just a couple of seconds.

If the full release comes in time for an LP I'm mixing in the next couple of weeks, VocalSync is easily going to save me a whole day's work, I reckon.

Platinum high-five indeed... 
 
I forget who wrote it in which thread, but small things like text color in the Control Bar are the type of improvements that make a cumulative difference over time but are never really highlighted.  I'm sure there are more to come...
 
I haven't used VocalSync yet but only applied it once to see how it worked - moving the knob back and forth to make the timing adjustment is very intuitive.   But that's about as far as I've gotten.