I have S1 3 Pro but have never taken to it. 
 
It has some nice features, but the UI and transport bar position make me tire of it quite quickly and I didn't find it to be as crashproof as some say.
 
I tried the samplitude demo last year and quite liked it tbh, but it felt like stepping back in time so I didn't buy it.
FWIW it has been on come kind of  "limited time" special price for at least a year so far. If x4 brings it up to date UI/menu wise I could see me being tempted by it.

After Cakewalk Inc's demise, I got Samplitude Pro X3 suite, Studio One 3 (now upgraded to v4), MixCraft and MixBus.
I also tried out Reaper, but chose not to buy it as by that time the BandLab announcement happened.
 
To be honest, I hardly use any of them as CbB covers 99% of what I need. 
 
However, what several people have said about each one being good DAW's, but each having their own strengths is true.
 
Given that they're all good at most DAW operations, I'll summarise my opinions on their main strengths over Cakewalk:
 
Samplitude Pro X3 Suite:  Good because it came with SoundForge Pro 11.
StudioOne 4: Great for the project/mastering side and better options for arranging during the writing stage.
MixCraft: Good if you're also working with video.
MixBus: Good for tracking (in an old-school sort of way) and great for mixing, but not much else.
Reaper: Highly customiseable.
 
So basically, with the possible exception of MixBus, I don't think you can go wrong with any of these... it's just really down to what "strength" you find most useful to you.

I switched to Studio One when Cake went under. It is AWESOME! Love the Arranger and Chord tracks. Was easy for me to switch to and I would recommend it to anyone. Good luck with your quest. 

I still have them all.  My preference is still CbB, as I love it's workflow and GUI.
Samplitude is HUGELY powerful.  It may not "look" the best, but feature and 
editing wise it's a BEAST!!!  And you get ALL the good stuff in the Suite, 
including Sound Forge 11, and some others.  I bought the $199 deal to get
the free upgrade to Pro X4 Suite, as I'm hoping that Magix have "upped their
game" with the new release, and that it gets me SF 12 Pro in the deal.  It
already got me the upgrade to Spectral Layers 5, which was the same price
as buying the ENTIRE Suite (SWEET!) deal!

If they rework the GUI, and add ARA2 support, look out.  It's going to be a contender.
IMO, it's already THE most underrated DAW on the market by the community.
At $199 for the Suite, AND a FREE Upgrade to Pro X4 Suite?  It's a no brainer. 
YES, it's harder to learn, but, as has been stated, once you get there, the power
and editing is unmatched by other DAW's.

There are some decent YouTube Tutorials also such a Kraznet's
https://www.youtube.com/user/kraznet
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EKm427jpkc

Here's a list
https://www.youtube.com/r...itude+pro+x3+tutorials

After playing with all three DAWs (CbB, Studio One Pro 4, Samplitude X3), I think Studio One Pro is out. Everyone raves about the workflow, but it feels too different to CbB to want to invest the time in learning it. 
 
I created the same type of project in all three DAWs, and CbB just works for me. No doubt using it since CWPA came out has something to do with that.
 
Not sure if I'm going to pull the trigger on Samplitude or not. I will be focusing more on it to see if I can determine what makes the object editor special and if that adds value *for me*. I came from old school 2" analog tape, so I'm more of a "learn your part and play it right, with feeling!" kinda guy than one that wants to spend endless hours making a Bride of Frankenstein vocal or guitar track.
 
I guess my real concern (which is why I'm looking at a second/backup DAW) is what happens when I build a new studio PC and have to re-install SPLAT to get all the plug-ins/goodies to use with CbB. I hope it will still be downloadable and work. But that topic has been hashed to death elsewhere. Not sure if it was ever resolved (haven't been paying attention to lifetime upgrade SPLAT recently).

garry
I guess my real concern (which is why I'm looking at a second/backup DAW) is what happens when I build a new studio PC and have to re-install SPLAT to get all the plug-ins/goodies to use with CbB. I hope it will still be downloadable and work. But that topic has been hashed to death elsewhere. Not sure if it was ever resolved (haven't been paying attention to lifetime upgrade SPLAT recently).

if you want be sure you can start your DAW on a new computer without Internet (or even with Internet, but in 5-10-15-20 years...), there are not many variants: Sonar X3 or REAPER.
I am not aware about any other alternatives to be absolutely sure.
 
A bit lower, but still relatively safe assumption is dongle authorization (f.e. Cubase).
 
Everything else, including "free" Tracktion and CbB, can stop working any time without a warning. And if you have no internet or the authorization service is offline, the game can be over.
 
On a positive side, you can download direct installers from CW and use them without CCC. Most bundled plug-ins do not required authorization.

Samplitudes' Independence is probably the best all in one acoustic samplers / sample players. It is a must for a lot of my compositions. It's a very deep DAW, it would depend on your style of recording.

I'm selling my copy of Samplitude X3 Suite (minus Melodyne Essential).
PM me if interested.

 One of the biggest differences is the lack of 3rd party tutorials for Samplitude.

kitekrazy1
 One of the biggest differences is the lack of 3rd party tutorials for Samplitude.

Have you not heard of Kraznet and all his Samplitude tutorials?