Are your record surfaces as silent as CDs?

Interestingly my old records seem to have generally much less surface noise compared to newer pressings. All after cleaning with Kirmuss. Has little to do with the hardware involved.

Part of playing records is dealing with the various forms of noise that are always lurking.  It doesn’t just magically ever go away though some phono rigs are certainly more quite than others. 

I found that when I got my first high end turntable (some thirty years now) and cartridge the surface noice dropped so substantially that for all practical purposes it seemed to diappear. Most of my albums are in excellent condition although probably half of my 2,000 are used. I choose carefully and clean them.

So, with a bit of hesitation I generally agree. If I listen really closely I can find enough noise to tell a CD from vinyl. But if I am not listening for it, most of the time I can’t hear anything.

Just for fun, I just randomly selected an album and put it on. It is a Chet Baker album, about twenty five years old. I am listening at 75db with occasional peaks to 77. I would say I cannot hear any surface noise. Once every ten seconds or so there is a tiny… minuscule, barely audible tick… which I wouldn’t hear if I wasn’t listening for it.  I would guess either a piece of dust. 

Well tell us what the "new System" consists of please!