I’m playing with Adobe Lightroom 3 Beta 2 with old files. The rendering engine is significantly better. Now if they would actually listen to photographers and address the print side, the print proofing, the files system… oh well, at least they have the rendering down now.
Here’s a sample from a series I did. The detail is much improved as well as the overall control of the black and whites. 
Uncorked Imaging 