Fuji RAW @ high ISOs: jpegs better?

So as I was saying there, it feels like at ISO 6400 the jpegs that my X-E1 outputs are way better in terms of noise reduction than anything I can manage in ACR/LR. I already tapped someone here for help and he got me close, but not quite there yet.

Here's a full-res jpeg and RAW; if you feel like it, take a look and see if you can equal the cleanness of the jpeg?

RAW: https://www.hightail.c​om …ad/elNLT215Tk10​TW5tcXRVag
jpeg: https://www.hightail.c​om …ad/elNLT215Tk05​bEM5TE5Vag

I'm not familiar with that camera. Also, I'm not a noise reduction "expert", I'll just toss out the fact that camera designers/developers/m​akers do put work into improving their products/technology. One area that we might see is the noise reduction that gets applied in-camera when producing a jpeg, and, at least with Canon, the High ISO noise reduction. Another that we've seen pop up has been Long Exposure Noise Reduction, in which the camera makes a second dark exposure and blends it with the normal exposure, but this setting is used in creating Raws as well a jpegs, at least with Canon cameras...

So, the question seems to be whether the noise reduction technology for at least some cameras when creating jpegs is "superior" to what Raw processors can achieve with Raw files?

My answer is, umm, I dunno! But because I'm a died-in-the-wool Raw shooter for concerns that go significantly beyond noise reduction, well, I can only suggest that I'd get the most out of Raw that you can. And then, there are many folks here who use "plug-ins" specifically for noise reduction, so that after Lightroom/ACR has done the "heavy lifting" these programs can take over the NR work on, say, a tiff...

In other words, I don't see in-camera noise reduction as being a good reason to switch back to shooting jpegs!

I also shoot RAW with an XE-1 and use LightRoom. But I have been reading the Fuji forum on DPReview, and many there think that the demosaicing algorithm that Adobe uses is not the best fit with the X-Trans sensor images. Many people there seem to prefer the SilkyPix converter which you can down load for free from the Fuji website. (http://www.fujifilmusa​.com …t=879787&sscuca​tid=664260)
Other Fuji users like the PhaseOne Capture One converter.

Had a quick go. Didn't spend enough time to get the colours exactly right, focused more on the NR...

Crop from the original jpeg above

Was it that OOF? Sorry, should've picked a better one. Pretty great job there; could you please share your settings?

First off dropped the highlights -55 and blacks -44 - dropping the black point to match the JPEG makes a big difference because pushing blacks/shadows really shows up noise.

Sharpening 51
Radius 1
Detail 25
Masking 77 - this removes a lot of noise in areas of solid colour.

Luminance Noise reduction 57 (detail and contrast at default)

Colour NR 20 (detail and smoothness at default)

I also did some messing with individual colour channels to get the purple areas behind the singer to be purple. It really needs some more fiddling to get the reds and blues to match but didn't have enough time.