Ok, so I hate to jump on the Dyson bandwagon... especially since I was such a skeptic and thought that no vacuum clearner could be worth close to $500 (with tax, it is). However, my mother bought us the Dyson Animal because she was worried about "her little angel" getting into the dog hair.
Well, I am a skeptic no longer. The Dyson pulls a LOT more stuff out of the carpet and off the furniture than either of our old vacuums (and was quite happy with my Eureka).
The only downsides that I've found so far are: 1) I wish it had a light... something I hadn't really thought about before, but I miss now; 2) I wish it got closer to the edges of things (my Eureka pretty much did right up to the baseboards) and 3) it needs more suction in the wand.
Other than that, I have to agree with the pp that my carpet actually looks better now.