tt surface noise reduce or tolerate?

A record cleaning machine is certainly a first step.

However, although some vinyl fans insist vinyl can be "as quiet as a CD" I have never heard it that way. You should audition a top notch system either at a dealer or one of the several Audiogon members who offer such help. Decide for yourself if the possible surface noise reduction is worth the cost, which by the way can run to several tens of thousands of dollars. I auditioned a rig listing for upwards of sixty grand, and found it to be only marginally better than my system (with respect to surface noise).

I admit to being highly sensitive to surface noise. It is possible to learn to "listen through" the noise, a skill which was highly developed before CDs came along. I was never very successful, but if you can do this you can enjoy the other desirable characteristics of LPs.

Before CDs were introduced surface noise (and rumble) was generally recognized as a problem, and many electronic devices were developed to reduce it. Bob Carver produced a device he called an Autocorrelator which I used, and it was probably the best. It implemented several band-limited filters which were controlled not only by noise in the band but also by analysis of lower musical fundamental frequencies to determine if any program signal "should" exist in the band. It also had a peak unlimiter, and dynamic rumble filter. Very clever, like much of Carver's work. However, it didn't take care of "clicks and pops", but there were other devices to remove these. The only LPs which I found to be "as quiet as a CD" were ones produced by the DBX company. These were only playable using special DBX electronics, which the company stupidly refused to licence for manufacture by others, and CDs killed the format. This was a shame because the processing had other benefits besides the obvious noise reduction.

By all means investigate improvement of your vinyl set up, but your expectations should be realistic.

You can experience virtually no surface noise while listening to vinyl. I have many LPs that are silent. They are clean and I keep them that way. Not by cleaning over and over but by handling them and storing them correctly. This yields good results. Cleaning LPs that have surface noise does improve noise as stated above. However you will not be able to remove scratches. If you have a favorite selection with scratches you can most likely get another copy on E Bay or new if its been re-released.

On the other hand, I have many CDs that are unlistenable due to compression and/or hiss. Obtaining, cleaning, and taking care of your LPs will give you enjoyable results.

I have found several things are important to significantly reduce LP surface noise:

1) make the cartridge track. The tone arm, the cartridge, the setup, the platter pad and proper grounding all play vital roles.

2) a quality phono preamp with zero feedback. I have found that phono sections that employ feedback will also exacerbate ticks and pops. Tube preamps that employ feedback may be more noisy than transistor preamps, but they will make less ticks and pops. Tube preamps without loop feedback will make the least.

The items of number one are things that can cause the cartridge to momentarily mistrack if not attended to. Mistracking can be the difference between a record seeming to be somewhat worn, when it is not, or a record seeming to be noisy when in fact it is quiet, were it simply played back competently.

The item of number two if not attended to will be an added layer of crackle. This is due to the propagation delay present in the phono circuits, being exacerbated by the loop feedback. Small ticks and pops that may well have been masked will suddenly be displayed in relief.

Once these things are taken care of, and as long as the LPs are in good reasonable condition, ticks and pops will be far less prominent- you may find that your friends are assuming that you are playing CDs when its really an LP playing.

I am one of those who say that vinyl can be almost as quiet as CD, however, and this is crucial....you must reread Plato's advice above. I have a Benz also, and indeed it is quiet - nearly no hiss on the vast majority of LP's. When the occasion pop, scratch, etc. sounds, it is on a different plane than the music. The music extends deep beyond the wall where the speakers are, and the clicks, pops, etc. are in front of the speakers. It is easy to disregard those sounds.