Is the Microkorg XL darker sounding then R3/RADIAS?

[mantras]

I have already owned a R3 once, wich i really liked except for the build quality.
Today i went to a store where they have Microkorg XL for demoing wich i intended to buy. Besides it were the R3. I know the differences because i have investigated. R3 has mod sequence, more different effects, and voice formant recording. Thats about it in terms of sound. But i was amazed how different they sounded! I used the same headphones, went back and forth. The Microkorg in comparison sounded dull, dark and with very little soundstage and feeling of stereo separation. On the R3 the sound was more metallic, crisp and open and spacious. More lush sound! I ended up not buying anything, puzzled by this results. Of course it could be a case of bad headphone amp in the XL, and good in the R3. Maybe the main outputs would sound equally good.
But to my experience, the XL had a different sound. The soundengines should be the same. Especially extreme patches with high resonance or distortion sounded much clearer on R3, also the vocoder sounds were much sharper on R3. Have anyone else compared this?

[CharlesFerraro]

I've cross programmed both synths and they sound exactly the same. The differences you heard were merely a matter of presets.