LR 1.2 ISO Noise filter good enough?

I read that noise reduction algorithm in LR version 1.2 has been upgraded with respect to the previous one. Downloaded 1.2 just now, coming back home from a long travel abroad, so I had no time to test.
Shot a Jazz concert last night. ISO 1600 in RAW with my Olympus E-300 (I know it is severely limited in ISO noise performance!), and had to accept underexposure in many pics, in order to get shutter speed fast enough.
The question is:
Under these challenging conditions,should I manage to deal with ISO noise through filtration in LR, or should I better run:
1. export to external editor (Photoshop CS)
2. run 3rd party NR plugin (Neat Image 5.8 Pro+)
3. reimport to LR for further processing steps.
In the latter case, it is better to leave LR Color and Luminance Noise filter parameter to defaul values, or zero everything, or set the sliders for the best possible noise suppression / image sharpness compromise?
I know, I shoud better experiment myself... but I am hard-pressed by the client asking pro-grade prints within minutes, so your help will be highly appreciated.
Best regards.
Andres Bernhard AKA 'Rapick'

Well, your example shows exactly why I think LR needs a lot of improvement. I surely hope that the LR-engineers take a good look at this.
The LR image has horrible NR/sharpening. Just look at the lady's hair (please forgive me my bad English - I mean the 'massive' part, not the individual hairs at the side of her face). Flat structure, strange colors, less detail than both DPP-pictures. Look at the skin on her cheek - oversharpened, unnatural colors (compared to the DPP-pictures). And the crown is heavily oversharpened in the LR-version (I would have been much more conservative here).
DPP-max clearly has the most noise, but produces by far the most natural picture. If this shows the philosophies of both Canon and Adobe, I would say Canon DPP + Noiseware is my best bet (natural and not too processed versus artificial/overprocessed), result-wise.
But I want LR to be that great converter. Dismissing other products than LR as useless doesn't help to improve LR, especially the parts where it should be far better. I don't buy the specialist-tool argument either. LR IS(!) a specialist tool and it is marketed that way. We should expect a flawless RAW-conversion from LR, no second-best solution. So instead of defending LR again and again, let's only define what should improve and how it should be done. This what I miss most in this forum. I think the developers should be visible here and discuss their choices. That would benefit them and us...
I like the way LR is designed and I like the idea how Adobe has managed to integrate the workflow. That's why I'm still sticking to it. Let's hope they bring out the LR-API soon, so we can use Noiseware (amd our own tools) within the LR-workflow...
Cheers,
Alex

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