RAW file disparity between Lightroom 4 and Photoshop CS5

I have an issue where Adobe Camera Raw (version 6.7 in CS5) is not compatible with my camera's RAW files (D600). One solution that Adobe proposes is installing Adobe DNG Converter 7.3 for RAW file processing in CS5.
To this point I have avoided using DNG, and I'm not completely sold on the idea even now. Can anyone comment on what issues/concerns I might have with using the DNG converter in CS5, but not converting to DNG in Lightroom?

Thanks,

Kevin