LP's... Do they sound better now than 30 yrs ago?

Chakster is bang on

It’s still going to be a lot of effort but since you were last around record cleaning has come a long way. Ultrasonic in particular is a major step forward so if you do get back in I’d make that part of your LP regime

I also agree with Chakster. Another issue is the limited production volume for current vinyl releases. Compared to the huge numbers produced for a given release back before CD, and now with way fewer record pressing plants, these limited runs and tight production schedules don’t allow for the same level of QC sampling and production process optimization. Granted there was junk produced even "back in the day".

The noise you are referring to is due to voids hidden under a thin layer of vinyl. In haste to crank things out or due to sloppy QC, not enough time is allowed for "degassing" of the blank while the vinyl is still semi-liquid. Play the record a few times, the vinyl is worn away and the pit below revealed with attendant snap, crackle, pop. Sampling and good QC would allow process step timing to be optimized to ensure a nice uniform slab of vinyl with little or no void spaces.

I am mostly as skeptical about audiophile vinyl releases as some others are about the value of so-called "hi rez downloads". Just another money grab. Of course there are always exceptions. The quality of the source material is one of the keys as has already been noted. Some labels seem to be more dependable than others for putting out a quality product.

I mainly listen to digital sources but have been carrying around boxes of records for 30-40 years. I still enjoy buying the occasional piece of old vinyl...and I don’t mean first releases exclusively. It’s a pleasure to put on an LP that is 30, 40 even 50 years old and enjoy great sonics and a quiet surface. It is possible. Case in point a recent antique store purchase of Al Stewart's "Year of the Cat" for like $5 bucks (some will no doubt say I overpaid!).  They did know what they were doing back when vinyl was king.

First of all, if you bother to educate yourself on routine care of an LP, and if you acquire decent equipment with which to play them, your experience with ticks and pops would never be repeated.  What you experienced was the result of abuse. Either your cartridge was badly worn or your set-up was way off such that the stylus was damaging your LPs as you played them.  I hasten to add that this does not make you a bad person.  If you spend some time learning about this discipline, you will learn what to do and what not to do to avoid repeating your old experience.  First rule of thumb is that second hand LPs, unless you know and trust the source, probably will benefit from a good cleaning BEFORE the needle hits the groove.  Playing a dirty LP can per se damage it.

Nearly half of my 2500 LPs were purchased used and most of the rest I have owned for 30-40 years.  I don't tolerate ticks and pops unless they occur only rarely. Most of my LPs offer background noise as low as the medium permits, and that is actually quite low, certainly low enough to be no issue as far as my listening pleasure.  Anything that's noisy enough to bug me goes into the trash.  I can count on two hands the number of LPs that I have had to discard for that reason in the last 10 years.  (That's less than 10 out of many hundreds that I have listened to.)

There’s a ton more RFI/EMI now than there was 30 years ago. So, all things being equal, LPs definitely sound a lot worse now. Final answer.