Try looking at your output options for OBJ. Quads and tris help. What was wrong with the first try? 
I made this with SimLab:
 http://www.i386group.com/simlab/sim_pod/pod.html
At first, i used a huge poly count model (To be sure it looked smooth) A subsequent test, with a default obj export (very low poly's) looked the same...  
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