Sonar on iMac using Parallels

 
Bootcamp is definitely the way to go if you want to run Sonar on a Mac as parallels shares drivers and system resources with OSX.
Also, unless you are running a fairly generic soundcard, you will probably have trouble getting your audio interface (and asio drivers) to run under paralells.
 
And they call them Apple store geniuses??

I've had no experience with Parallels, but I can say that Sonar runs like a champ under Bootcamp. I've been running such for a couple of years now on my second MacPro used only for Sonar/Bootcamp
 

Can't  say for sure that the firewire/thunderbolt adapter will work, but it should be fine (I have had only one device not play nicely, and it may or may not have been the adapter).
 
FWIW last year I replaced an iMac with a HP all in one PC that was twice the specs for about half the price, and it has a touchscreen. Worth checking out unless of course you have particular appleware you wish to run.

I recommend against all-in-ones since they use proprietary hardware and thus are difficult to repair or upgrade, and often cost more. Also monitors tend to outlive computers quite a bit and with an AIO you are tying a monitor to computer hardware so you can have to toss a perfectly good monitor just because the computer has gotten too old to be usable.
 
However, if you wish to have a Windows AIO then Dell is probably the way to go. An Optiplex 7440 would be a good choice, or an XPS 27 touch.

Sycraft
I recommend against all-in-ones since they use proprietary hardware and thus are difficult to repair or upgrade, and often cost more. Also monitors tend to outlive computers quite a bit and with an AIO you are tying a monitor to computer hardware so you can have to toss a perfectly good monitor just because the computer has gotten too old to be usable.
 
However, if you wish to have a Windows AIO then Dell is probably the way to go. An Optiplex 7440 would be a good choice, or an XPS 27 touch.

I agree with this as well. Get a basic machine from Directron.com or someplace like that, buy the basic machine but leave open options to expand, change, etc. I bought a box with extra slots for video card/audio card upgrade potential as time moved on. Never know when you might need four 30" screens and 3 or 4 sound-cards down the road as they become cheaper, but Sonar grows bigger.

tenfoot

brconflict

Sycraft
I recommend against all-in-ones since they use proprietary hardware and thus are difficult to repair or upgrade, and often cost more. Also monitors tend to outlive computers quite a bit and with an AIO you are tying a monitor to computer hardware so you can have to toss a perfectly good monitor just because the computer has gotten too old to be usable.
 
However, if you wish to have a Windows AIO then Dell is probably the way to go. An Optiplex 7440 would be a good choice, or an XPS 27 touch.

I agree with this as well. Get a basic machine from Directron.com or someplace like that, buy the basic machine but leave open options to expand, change, etc. I bought a box with extra slots for video card/audio card upgrade potential as time moved on. Never know when you might need four 30" screens and 3 or 4 sound-cards down the road as they become cheaper, but Sonar grows bigger.

 
Whilst I  agree that a tower PC is clearly the best choice with regard to upgradabilty and flexibility, the repairability is only partially true. I have an all in one that I bought to use as a server for our media room. They have  more  user repairabilty than a laptop. You obviosly can't change the motherboard easily,  but as with a laptop, the 'consumables' like hdd's, power supplies and ram are user changeable. Even the wreless elements are just usb components that are installed internally.
 
The main disadvantage of an all in one for use as a daw is that unlike a laptop, there is no way to natively run a second monitor. If that doesn't bother you, and as the OP stated you like the look and convenience, there are plenty of options that will run Sonar for many years. With modern PC's you don't necessarily always have to sacrifice style for utility:)

Personally, I find the tower PC to be the easiest to service/upgrade, and definitely the most flexible.

tenfoot
For sure Brian -  as I said I agree that it is the most flexible and easiest to service, but the alternatives are not as impossibly inaccessible as they were in the past. 

Have you serviced/upgraded a recent build iMac?
It can certainly be done... but it's not for the faint-of-heart.
You have to pull off the display (cutting the adhesive around the entire perimeter).
This and especially re-attaching (with appropriate adhesive strips) are the toughest tasks.
If you want to swap out the CPU, you literally have to take apart the entire unit.
 
Other all-in-one solutions are likely not this tedious...
But it's a major pain compared to a rack, tower, or even custom laptop.

Sanderxpander
Upgrading a CPU is a nice thought but at the rate Intel drops new socket standards to the market it's hardly ever worth the money and effort. RAM and disks is about it and with Thunderbolt and USB3, arguably even disks aren't that important anymore to have internally. And PCI-e based stuff of course but even that is mostly high end graphics cards for gamers and 3d rendering. 
 
Don't get me wrong, I have a tower case and I've reused it, and my screens. Definitely better value than an entirely new system. But "upgrading" these days basically means swapping out mobo/CPU/RAM etc for a newer set. 

Totally agree Sanderexpander. 

One other point I should re-state in a new way is that tower-type machines can be built with maximum power and utility. As your needs grow, assuming your Mother-board/CPU combo was good to begin with, pretty much all other aspects of the system can be freshened up a bit with little expense and trouble. The point, however, is that most all-in-one machines, laptops, mini-desktops, etc. are typically a degradation of maximum potential, so that they can use less power, lessen heat-generation, and noise.
 
I agree field-serviceable components are worthwhile upgrades, but upgrades to speed the embedded services up might be too much to take. In other words, once the OS or drivers are no longer supported in the box, you are forced to upgrade, and can't typically piecemeal those components. Towers allow you to upgrade the power supply, mother-board/CPU combo, add/remove slots, expend USB, PCI-e, SATA, etc. options as you see fit. And parts are cheaper, too.
 
EDIT: Overall point of this thread is how Sonar would perform on a Mac through Parallels. Apple no longer REALLY provides a tower, and the options they do provide are best suited to new hardware, or very powerful older hardware. Regardless, when attempting to run a program designed to run natively close to hardware, it is imperative to afford the maximum amount of resources to that program. To emulate the OS and run Sonar on an emulated machines, is likely to take a back-seat to the MAC OS X. To run it on a smaller form-factor machine where performance is degraded intentionally to cut down on heat/energy consumption is likely to be even worse. The best scenario for a case like Sonar is to run it on the most reasonable hardware available, regardless of size. It must perform and be cost-effective.

I've done both. Bootcamp gives way better performance, but you may run into driver issues with the hardware. It's still a performance hit even under Bootcamp. Parallels is okay for some things but a DAW or video work is going to suffer dramatically. I couldn't get reliable performance out of it so I abandoned the idea.
 
PCs are cheap, even laptops. I'd go with a PC for your use as it's less headache. I do wish I had SONAR on my Macbook Pro so I could have a mobile rig to work on SONAR projects with but I can do sketches in something like Reaper and then just port over the audio when it's "time". :-) Besides, staying fluent in more than one DAW pays dividends in troubleshooting technique. :-)
 

Boot Camp would be probably your best option here. Yes.

If I was you and really was set on getting an iMac, I would spend the money to spec it out pretty good like Keni mentioned above. I would get an I7 processor, 16 GB ram and 1TB SSD. If you video edit you might as well get the better graphics cards also. This is going to cost you. They are good machines and OS X is great. But since upgrading them really isn't an option, you may find yourself unsatisfied if it's underpowered for what you want to do. Spend the money now to get longer use out of it. They get expensive.
 
I completely replaced my Windows desktop 2 1/2 years ago with rMBP late 2013 and it's been the best computer I've ever had and I don't miss the Windows desktop at all. But it cost me. The SDD are extremely fast and improve the performance tremendously. I used the crap out of the laptop and it has exceeded my expectations. I use it for both audio and video editing. 
 
If I wanted a gaming machine though I would not go with MAC. Windows is much better.
 
Also, I probably would not invest in a MAC if your not excited about OS X and the Apple eco system. If you plan on running Windows I would just save the money and get something else. If you really want a MAC you may be better off taking the time and learn logic. It's really not that difficult to learn. There's some video sources you can purchase access to for a couple months and just watch the videos. Like https://www.macprovideo.com.

tenfoot
I was referring to the HP All in one that I referenced in the earlier post Jim, and am really only talking about end user service issues like replacing a hdd or upgrading ram.  I haven't serviced any Macs for a couple of years now,  but they were always a nightmare to work on. 

FWIW, We recently bought a new Mac...
(Have many Mac clients running networked custom VE Pro "slave" PCs)
I wanted the fastest possible machine...
Ironically, that's currently the late 2015 iMac with Skylake 6700k.  Faster than the highest end Mac Pro.
Couldn't get the exact configuration I wanted from Apple, so I upgraded the machine.
Pulling the whole screen assembly off (and re-attaching) is something you've got one-shot to get right.
It'll get the blood-pressure pumping... even folks who are extremely tech-savvy.   
 
Even to swap out the 2TB Fusion HD for a real SSD, you have to remove the entire display assembly.
The only "upgrade" that's user-friendly is swapping RAM.
If you want to swap out the CPU, the whole machine has to come apart.

Jim Roseberry
 
Pulling the whole screen assembly off (and re-attaching) is something you've got one-shot to get right.
It'll get the blood-pressure pumping... even folks who are extremely tech-savvy.   
 

Breaking out in a sweat just thinking about it!  Glad it went well for you.  I really don't miss having to deal with Apple products. They certainly seem to go out of their way to protect their service dollar.