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

These clicks, etc. are caused by a good stylus that tracks the imperfections, or a bad one that does not .

I use a Talisman to mitigate static and a good US cleaning to eliminate dust and dirt. I have silent playback from vinyl! Some of the older records have surface scratches from rough handling 50 years ago and of course a few dings here and there.

@johnss 
Last night I gave my noisy crackle 180 gram a really good cleaning, and whaddya know the crackling went away! I also noticed most of the static was removed from the record which was what I thought causes the crackling. I'll test out more records in the coming days.

MC, I have two 911s and neither one squeals. One is ceramic and it is supposed o have a reputation for that. The other one will grind just starting out if the brakes got wet but no squeal. It has Girodisc rotors on it and Centric pads.