Vinyl's Noise Floor

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.

Pbb, while I love vinyl and consider it the best way to listen to music, I am not advocating that it is perfect. I have numerous less-than-great albums and some that are in pretty bad condition. I can hear plenty of noise on these. They are not my favorites, but sometimes I play them because they have some music I like. Not all records are quiet, and I see the point that this might distract some people. My good condition albums do play quietly, and are very enjoyable. But, bad recordings show through on any recorded media. So, nothing is perfect, but good condition vinyl on a good turntable gives the best possible musical source. If a quiet background is more important than the musical reproduction, I think that is a reversal of priorities. Background noise floor should only be considered after the quality of reproduction is considered. If the sources are equal, musically, then I would agree that the lower noise factor would be the more enjoyable one. The problem is, the sources are not equal, musically. Analog is a better sounding media, and can be very quiet, given good records and equipment. So which is more important to you as a listener? Better music with the chance of a few clicks here and there, or lesser music with a consistently quiet background? To put it in an automotive analogy, which would you rather have, a Ferrari with a free-flow exhaust that can be loud when you get on it,but is usually quiet around town, or a Toyota with a real quiet muffler that is quiet all the time?

Having recently returned to vinyl after some 20 years, I too was apprehensive about my ability to hear beyond the inherent noise that does exist on lp's. I'm using a Rega P 25 with Super Elyse through the new Black Cube with upgraded power supply. The problem is software. I listen to classical and have purchased a goodly amount of brand new, never played, factory sealed lp's. Without exception, every RCA, Columbia, Angel (read pressed in US) has surface imperfections; high degree of surface noise,clicks and pops on the FIRST PLAY after a thouough VPI cleaning and rinse followed by a zerostat! On the other hand, virtually every new or used Decca, London, Richmond, Argo, earaly Mercury (all the same company except Merc) pressed in England or Holland has had wonderfully quiet surfaces with very little backround noise. Furthermore, many of the US discs mentioned above seem to have the same distortion and high frequency glare that led me away from cd's in the first place. Unfortunately for those who favor rock or popular music as opposed to classical, they cannot avail themselves to what may be the ultimate analogue sound

I have also had a good degree of sucess with Telarcs, which if I'm not mistaken, are Japanese pressings, as were Mobile Fidelity.

No one can convince me that a better table/arm/cartridge combination could cure the inherent problems of the above mentioned labels. It's all in the quality of the software.