I generally shoot RAW + JPG, because I shoot a mix of subjects, some of which I need right away, and some of which I can "play with" the processing later to get the best possible image, especially with landscapes. When I import to LR, I convert the RAW to DNG.
Anyway, I never can seem to get the RAW files to be as sharp as JPGs, no matter what settings I use. If I sharpen too much, I get a lot of noise, and over-sharpening artifacts, but if I back off, the image just doesn't look sharp at all. I know a lot of people advocate not comparing the RAW files to the original JPGs, and I'm not necessarily trying to duplicate the JPGs, but I do like to use them as a reference for sharpening. So eventually I just give up, and process the JPG as best I can, and use that file. It seems like a waste spending all that time to get an otherwise brilliant image, but I can't use it because I can't get it properly sharpened. I don't want to export everything to Photoshop all the time, although if I have to do a lot of cloning, or adjustments to one part of the image only, I do export to Photoshop.
Anyway, I never can seem to get the RAW files to be as sharp as JPGs, no matter what settings I use. If I sharpen too much, I get a lot of noise, and over-sharpening artifacts, but if I back off, the image just doesn't look sharp at all. I know a lot of people advocate not comparing the RAW files to the original JPGs, and I'm not necessarily trying to duplicate the JPGs, but I do like to use them as a reference for sharpening. So eventually I just give up, and process the JPG as best I can, and use that file. It seems like a waste spending all that time to get an otherwise brilliant image, but I can't use it because I can't get it properly sharpened. I don't want to export everything to Photoshop all the time, although if I have to do a lot of cloning, or adjustments to one part of the image only, I do export to Photoshop.