What do you think causes the crackle and clicks we hear?

Buy old records in great shape, clean them fully, use a Zerostat gun or other static remover, finish with carbon fiber anti static brush. You will have no more noise.

BS
Nitty Gritty, Last, First, Carbon Fiber brush, ZeroStat gun.
Blah blah honk honk.
Noise.

After 36 years, and now retirement making breakfast cereal. Rice Crispys as a matter of fact. We ran that stuff seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Keep buying them, you will be helping my union pension ... LOL

If you play an early pressed well cut platter the noise is minimized. For mo so most records available for sale the only way to minimize noise real time is an expander, Park's Magic or spend up for a Sugar Cube.

dirt. I have found DCC, Analogue Productions, Umbrella D2D and Sheffield Lab D2D pressings are VERY quiet. ANY record I purchase - new or used - gets cleaned in my CleanerVinyl RCM. Some of them multiple times.