Vinyl's Noise Floor

It is possible to get vinyl as quiet as CD, but there are dozens of factors making an absolute yes or no answer difficult. Much Depends on how hard you want to work to get there.

There is nothing in your post that hints at related equipment or quality of software. Even if "highest calibre" as you state, does this mean brand new or always cared for LP's from your collection?

What is the quality of the turntable arm and cartridge, how efficient are the speakers and what are you using for the phono stage? How close do you sit from your speakers and at what sound pressure level must you listen to fill your listening room and convince yourself that the balance of the presentation is correct?

Albert, although I'm almost certain I'll like the sound of vinyl, it would be prudent to start with a modest front-end in order to discern whether I do indeed dig analog. My prospective introductory rig will consist of a VPI Scout with the factory mounted cartridge and a Lehmann Silver Cube phono stage. This is to be coupled to a Wavac MD300B integrated amp and Merlin VSM/M speakers. Audioquest Anaconda interconnects are will be interpose between the table's rca jacks and phono stage and P/stage to amp. The speaker cables are AQ Volcano. In addition, I plan to purchase the VPI LP cleaner.

I am willing to be punctilious with regard to table/arm/cartridge set-up and, of course, cleaning and storing the LPs per recommendations--whatever it takes. The listen room is very isolated from external sound, thereby heightening my tinnitus. I prefer to listening volume of about 90db.

If I like the VPI Scout's sound, I may ascend to the Clearaudio Master reference/Insider cartridge/ Walker P/stage, if one can find these on the used market.

Thanks for your response!

With that analog rig, you're in for a treat...

I think that what you are pointing to is the Achilles heel of the analog turntable. While devotees of vinyl insist that they can hear around or through the noise, I fail to see how that can be done. They insist that the musicality inherent to analog shines through despite this noise, or deny its existence, or minimise it to such a degree that no one should be concerned with it. From what I read here and elsewhere on the subject, the best tt/arm/cart. makes the recording more silent. How this can be achieved still has me scratching my head. I am often told that my reservations about impact noise and generally the quite noticeable background noise inherent to a stylus following a groove, stems from the fact that I have never heard a state of the art vinyl front-end. I admit as much. ( What about the records? Even when vinyl was readily available, every second pressing turned out to be a dog, no not a shaded one, I can just imagine what buying used is like) I have not heard any tt other than mine in almost twenty years and, while decent, it never was state of the art to begin with. I can't seem to find any shop locally that has them anymore. I have asked on more than one occasion in this forum for a suggestion as what such an analog front-end would consist of so I could try to hear it for myself. No one has directly answered the question yet. It may well be that one requires both types of front-end so that one could chose on a record by record basis which version yields the better compromise sound-wise. Not my idea of fun. At any rate, I am quite curious as to the answers other participants may have to your question. Regards.

I listen to analog predominately and the vast majority of my LPs are not noisy. I buy lots of used vinyl and still buy plenty of new releases. Noise is rarely an issue. My system consists of a Sota Star with the Rega RB 900 arm and a Benz Glider cartridge. My digital front end cost more but I still prefer the sound of vinyl. I understand this is more expensive than what you are looking to buy but don't be afraid of "returning to analog." A relatively good TT setup and a record cleaner will get you music you can't get from/on CDs.
A clean record on a good TT will give you great music (yours) and there's no reason it has to be noisy. Some recordings are better than others but I have recordings with backgrounds so deep and black you could fall into them.