Surface noise

surface noise is caused by the following phenomena

1) incorrect VTA, so that the sylus makes incorrect angled contact with the groove
2) signal induction into a MM cartridge from a ferrous platter
3) stylus wear forming flat wear spots that interfere with tracking of recorded vibration in the audible range
4) incorrect stylus pressure (usually too low)
5) aging of rubber like materials in some types of stylus suspensions

In addition, incorrect antiskating can cause a channel imbalance of surface noise

The signal to noise ratio of a properly setup, functioning catridge is determined by
a) the catridge manufacturer design
b) the ability of the TT to prevent micro transient vibrations from interfering with accurate stylus vibration tracing; micro vibrations cause an averaging/reduction in dynamic range between softest and loudest passages on vinyl playback.

Davide256, you missed one- design of the phono section can affect ticks and pops quite a lot.

Bdunn, the first thing to do is to determine the value that you need. There are several ways to do that, you could get a stereo potentiometer, wire it as a rheostat, put that across the inputs of the phono section and dial it in. Radio Shack makes a 100K stereo potentiometer that would work nice for that.

Or you could start with a resistor value and see what effect it has. This can be a little trickier as you have to change the resistor to change the loading. That's why I like to use the pot.

But since you have a Grado, I already know that most of them like something in the 8-12K range. Your input resistance of the preamp is 47K, which has to be taken into account. So I would get a pair of resistors that are about 17-20K to use as loads.

Now some preamps don't allow you to do this easily and others do. Its been my experience that you don't want to interrupt the phono cable on its way to the preamp with an additional connector, but that would be one way to do it- get an RCA to RCA adapter and install the resistor inside it. Otherwise you might have to install the resistor across the input connection of the preamp. Of the two the latter is preferred as long as the installation isn't difficult.

given the stylus age and gradual onset of symptoms a prudent person would replace their stylus at this point rather than continue down a path that could be damaging your LP's due to worn out stylus or hardening of the suspension damper. But who am I to say, I only did this for a living in the 80's

Davide256, so did I, from 1974 until now... but I was not discrediting your comments, FWIW. Simply adding to them.

Thanks again for all of the advice. The increase in VTF certainly provided the improvement I was looking for. I'm just going to back off of the 2g setting and see if I have the same luck at 1.7g. I am also replacing the stylus, as it is probably time. Will let you know the results.
Regards, Brian.