Man these things kick out the dust!!!
I was unsure what to expect on such a low cost monitor as I had only used higher end products before, but I have to say I was very pleased with the outcome and performance. As with any speaker the sound we hear varies from user to user, so I would always recommend trying to hear them first.
What I was most astonded about was the sound I got from plugging a Line 6 UX2 into them, the guitar sounded likeI had plugged into a wall of Marshall's ( using the digital out on the UX2).
Good entry level powered monitor 10/10

Cubase 5 vs Sonar 8.5

I spent a huge amount of time deliberating between buying Cubase 5 or Sonar 8.5 for a 64bit Windows 7 installation (the two top end DAWs for Windows). In the end I saved up and bought both - the “Education Version” of Cubase 5 (most people are eligible – parents, teachers, students) which then makes you entitled to the cheaper “Competitive Crossgrade” for Sonar 8.5 Producer. In total this worked out only slightly more expensive than the full price of one of them! Both are very capable DAWs and as far as I am concerned they are both directly comparable with each other except for the following features where one excels above the other:

64bit OS
I’m using both on a Windows 7 Pro 64bit installation with a Core i7 machine. My audio interface is an Alesis io26 which unfortunately does not have the most efficient drivers. (***On an aside note Windows 7 works a dream, and audio performance is similar to if not slightly better than XP on the same machine, and a huge improvement on Vista, which I found unusable.***) For 64bit installations Sonar 8.5 is the winner by a mile. I initially installed Cubase 5 64bit but constant crashes while using the program, especially when using 32bit VSTs meant I had to resort to using the 32bit version, taking away any performance gains and the extra RAM addressing 64bit allows. This is a well known problem with Cubase 64bit with Steinberg actually recommending using the 3rd party JBridge software to use 32bit VSTs...which I still found gave mixed results. Sonar 8.5 works very well in 64bit, all 32bit plugins have worked well with their Bitbridge and they supply inbuilt support for JBridge as well if you require it. I only have the 64bit version installed, with no need for the 32bit version.

Verdict – Sonar 8.5 if 64bit (lots of RAM!) is what you need at the moment.

Program speed/efficiency
Sonar wins again here. Starting the program takes around 3 seconds compared to Cubase’s 14 seconds. At 48KHz Sampling Rate Sonar can work at 128 samples latency with my io26 for small to medium sized projects and 256 for large projects. Cubase has constant dropouts at 128 and the occasional dropout at 256 meaning I work with it at 512 samples. For me this is a crucial difference and incredibly frustrating for Cubase as 512 latency is too much for vocal and drums monitoring etc. where low latency is essential. With a better soundcard with more efficient drivers I’m sure the latency would be better, but I’m also sure Sonar would still perform the best.

Verdict – Sonar 8.5 if efficiency and low latency is required.

Bundled Plugins, Virtual Instruments
There is no question here that in terms of quality and quantity of instruments Sonar wins - bundled with Dimension Pro (sample library), Session Drummer 3, z3ta+, Rapture LE, Guitar Rig 3 LE, True Piano LE etc. It allows you to get creating music straight out the box without needing to buy any expensive VST instruments. It also has a huge selection of effects for realtime reverb, delay, vocal processing etc. to mastering options like Linear Phase EQs, Boost11 etc. Cubase has comparable effects plugins and a truly excellent real time convolution reverb (REVerence) which in my opinion is much better than Sonar’s equivalent (with lots of latency!). On the instrument side it is poor with Halion 1 containing only a few instruments.

Verdict – Sonar 8.5 if you don’t have many of your own plugins

MIDI editing/Scoring
Although I haven’t delved into the details my initial experimentations seem to show Cubase is ahead here with some really useful tools for efficiently editing MIDI data. If you work a lot with MIDI programming for instruments/beats then Cubase is definitely recommended here, although Sonar can achieve the same results, just in more time.

Verdict – Cubase 5 for much more efficient MIDI editing

Release/Update Cycle
Cubase 5 is very stable (unless you use the 64bit version!!) and has a long release cycle (Steinberg don’t update it very often!). Cakewalk on the other hand brings out yearly upgrades for Sonar (which cost) as well as intermittent bug fixes etc. The problem with this is that you may be tempted to shell out £90ish each year to upgrade to the newest version.

Verdict – Personal preference but for me Sonar for the faster updates.

Licence/Copy Protection
Cubase 5 uses a dongle for protection. On a laptop this may be quite annoying but for a desktop this is fine. The huge advantage of this type of protection is that it allows you to legally sell on the software second hand, whereas as Sonar uses a Serial and Registration Code, it cannot be legally sold on. Of course if you like Cubase you won’t be selling it anyway, but at least the option is there if you don’t like it.

Verdict – Cubase 5 for the flexibility.

Mac OS X
Cubase 5 supports Mac OS X natively whereas Sonar is Windows only and can therefore only be used on a Mac using Bootcamp. If you want to use PCs and Macs then Cubase is a good choice. If you are only using Macs then Logic may be the better choice. If you are Windows only then some suggest that the fact that Cakewalk only have to support Sonar on one platform means bugs will be found and updated easier, although whether this works in practice is debatable.

Verdict – Cubase 5 if you need dual platform compatability.

In conclusion both are highly capable DAWs and choice between them will depend on the features listed above which are important to you. For me, if I was to buy just one again I would buy Sonar 8.5 due to the higher efficiency (therefore lower latency performance), good 64bit support, and bundled plugins. Cubase has great 32bit stability, MIDI editing, licensing options, and dual platform support but for me these are not as important. However if you can afford both, they do complement each other well as one will make up for the other’s shortfalls.

Cannot Fault Dolphin Music for Price, it was the best. Cannot Fault Dolphin Music for Delivery they said a date and it arrived.
Dolphin get 100%.

Sonar 8?
Different story, has no mp3 codec supplied with it, thats another $19! Whats that about?
Also out of the box version 8 HAD TO BE UPGRADED to work with windows vista home premium. which meant my RAYDAT board also needed to be upgraded, which was tiresome so choose carfully.
Finally is the bundle worth it?
OH YES!! 100% but be prepared for windows version hassles.
Why only 7 stars?
No mp3 Codec.
Forced a software/firmware change on my audio card.
Dropsout with this version of windows vista.
Selecting RME device in audio window is almost impossible to read.
Manual a little bit short on good advice and on line help poor.
Sorry Sonar....