I've been using Reason for a while now..... and seriously I don't know where all these sound complaints come from??
It sounds great to me...... I use it for basic sequncing and programming, but then transfer everything to cubase for mixing down. Sounds sweet as.
I can't afford to buy any of the VST's for cubase for mac (yes I've tried downloading, no go) so Reason is perfect for what I want.
Maybe I'm doing everything ass about, but it works for me.