@Jeff, absolutely, though it may be helpful to stress that in cross-testing, Null is achieved only if SONAR is set to the same Panning Law as SO (-3 dB IIRC?). But of course, in the end, we should be using our ears to achieve the level of Left and Right we need on each and every channel. And now we know, as you say, that SO as a summing/mixing tool is no different than any other DAW.
 
 

Jeff Evans
To cparmerlee you have missed this I am afraid.  In the end Sylvan got the null happening and has realised that all his initial impressions were not so in the end.

I did miss that.  Thanks for putting me on track.

Jeff Evans 
In pure summing mode all DAW's are basically the same and Studio One is no different.  If you are getting a lesser result in Studio One it is because you are not using your ears, your plugins properly and just generally not getting a great sound, all due to your own limitations.  Studio One sounds as good as any DAW out there. No matter what it is. It is up to you to get the result. 

No, that does not follow, or at least I don't follow your line of logic.  It seems to me that Sylvan showed that out of the box, the results are considerably different.  The differences may be explained by settings, which is reassuring.  But I found the sound qualitatively better in SONAR.
 
If you are saying that had I changed the S1 panning law (which I didn't even know existed, and which apparently can't be changed in S1 anyway), then it would have matched SONAR exactly, I trust that is correct.

Pan laws can be changed by inserting the Dual Pan plugin.  On tracks the pan law is fixed at -3 dB. (Unless you insert Dual Pan) To be honest I have found the standard pan laws to be perfectly fine.
 
Final mix sound quality is no better in Sonar than any other DAW. (I have owned a few and produced significant projects in many DAW's in fact. Cubase, Logic, Sonar, Pro Tools and now Studio One) Results for me are always the same. I hear how I want it to end up and it always gets there.
 
To imply that better results are possible in Sonar than other DAW's is simply not true.  Final sound quality depends on you. People need to let go of the concept that one DAW sounds better than another.  It is a very tired old argument. 

Great engineer plus any DAW = great results
Ordinary engineer plus any DAW = ordinary results
 
The stock plugins will be the most obvious thing that will separate DAW's sound wise.  Plus built in things like console emulators etc. Third party plugins will sound the same in any DAW.
You are choosing a DAW for its features and workflow. Not for its sound. 
I have even nulled tracks mixed in Mixbus (with no saturation or any processing applied) and Studio One. Meaning that even Mixbus is adding no special sauce. The Mixbus sound is coming from everything else.
 
 

I'm really liking s1 so far, im finding it suits my workflow and needs better than sonar.
Things like audio bend, sending to sample one or dropping slices in impact is some of the simple functionality and integration sonar was missing out of the box imo.

In comparison Sonar appears very set in its ways and long winded when carrying out the same simple tasks.

ljb500
In comparison Sonar appears very set in its ways and long winded when carrying out the same simple tasks.

Yes with many things.  Like Aux tracks for example.  Somehow Studio One provides similar functionality without needing them.  Just allowing a buss to be able to act as an input source to an audio track is all it takes.  Things like allowing you to grab that gain handle on an audio event and change it.  Gain is added or subtracted right there and the waveform changes to reflect that. (with care you can easily match events rms levels by eye)  No need for gain or trim controls in the channel.  That same functionality is provided elsewhere.

Jeff Evans

ljb500
In comparison Sonar appears very set in its ways and long winded when carrying out the same simple tasks.

Yes with many things.  Like Aux tracks for example.  Somehow Studio One provides similar functionality without needing them.  Just allowing a buss to be able to act as an input source to an audio track is all it takes.  Things like allowing you to grab that gain handle on an audio event and change it.  Gain is added or subtracted right there and the waveform changes to reflect that. (with care you can easily match events rms levels by eye)  No need for gain or trim controls in the channel.  That same functionality is provided elsewhere.

I was pleasantly surprised with it, haven't even had to look at the manual or watch any vids yet.

A plugin does this in presonus. it's set at -3.

Jeff Evans
Like Aux tracks for example. 

I never got aux tracks.  It seemed like they went to a whole lot of work to develop a feature that didn't really add anything you couldn't easily do already.

I bought S1 the Monday after Gibson Killed Cakewalk.
But I am on Cubase now.
I dont want to be on a minor DAW anymore, with all the insecurity about it.
Now I want to stay on the standard.
Now even my Native Instuments Komplete S61 works as it should.
I still have the S1 and might play with it sometimes tho.

Well I don't think you can be more secure with cubase than S1. S1 is doing very good in hardware sales than Steinberg. They bring in more revenue than software. Even if you consider only the software S1 is doing very good for a new daw. What changes will happen in the daw market after 5years you will never know.