Anyone notice different amounts of surface noise with different arms?

@mijostyn My gut feel is that you are right, but I do have a few records not available on silver disk that carry deep meaning for me on the rare occasions that I play them.  Then there is all the hype about analogue versus digital which I'd like to get to the bottom of!
Can I ask what your table, arm, cartridge and phono stage are, please?

@richardbrand I use a Sota Cosmos Vacuum table with a Schroder CB arm. My current cartridges are the Lyra Atlas Lambda SL, Ortofon MC Diamond, Soundsmith Hyperion MR and the Shure V15 V Jico SAS/B. The phono stages are the MM stage in the DEQX preamp and a Channel D Seta L Plus. 

You might consider have those few records digitized. Those of us with Channel D phono stages can do that for you at 24/192 resolution. I raid friend's record collections all the time. 

Dear @mijostyn  :" In spite of extremely expensive cartridges of all types it still can not compete with a well mastered, high resolution digital file. "

I already posted in this thread and others in the last 10+ years that fully digital alternative beats fully analog alternative or even  alittle worst when both alternatives are mixed as in your system.

Lyra, Ortofon and several other cartridge designers make the cartridge VOICING through a fully analog alternative. Yes they comparesagainst same recording on ditigal option but that's all.

My take is that today you still do not really know how good are your cartridges and obviously that even that,everything the same, willnot beats a top digital option butI think a little better that what you are listening. These is not about what you like but what should be..

Come on mijos:RIAA and bass range ( foundation of MUSIC ) is handled digitally. Where comes the analog? that's what the cartridges were mainly designed.

You can have or " You might consider have your records/LPs digitized. "

R.

@mijostyn Thanks for the list!  One or the early upgrades I thought about was putting a Jico SAS/B stylus into my Shure V15, which I guess is 50 years old and has an elliptical stylus.  For about the same price I bought a new Audio Technica VM540ML cartridge, which seems to have the same MicroLine stylus as the SAS/B, albeit on an aluminium cantilever.  It makes it on to TAS' "50 Greatest Bargains in High-End Audio".  And I still have the complete Shure cartridge!

Had not thought of digitising my records, though I did record all my dad's records to tape.  I note that Presto Classical can now singly manufacture no-longer-available CDs from the back catalogues of record companies like Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Philips, Sony etc.  They also had over 6,000 SACDs in their catalogue last time I counted.  And they have just introduced a streaming service including file downloads.

@rauliruegas All my records are in effect digitized as my phono stage runs directly into the ADC of the Lynx Hilo. I have gone back and forth between analog RIAA correction and digital RIAA correction and I can not tell the difference. I can record records either way. As far as the performance of my turntable is concerned, it is right up there with the very best. It has no bling. It is the cost effective way of going about it. I put it together to play music not stare at it. Could it be better? Yes, with the addition of a tangential tracking tonearm. No turntable/cartridge/tonearm combination can compete with the best 24/96 or 24/192 files. I have heard some great analog systems over the years and none of them can compete with a digitally corrected one. 

@richardbrand My DEQX preamp has a Volumio chip in it which connects with a multitude of streaming services. After doing some research I subscribed to Qobuz and have been very happy with it. It is the first streaming service I have heard that matches Channel D's Pure Music program. I'll look into Presto Classical, Thanx for that.