How do you get past the pops and hiss of LPs?

Wow, Viridian, you enjoy hearing noise that is 20db higher in level than the music?! Even adding the 20db to the average 50db range before hitting the noise floor, that gives you 70db. Don't worry I have measured several LP's for dynamic range and it is a rare disc that has more than 75db. Which is why I have found using an old Phase Linear 1000 range expander quite useful in restoring some dynamics to most LPs. Works well for FM broadcasts also.

Bob P.

Rockinroni, "this is bass that a CD player cannot match"! Please! If only that supposedly added octave in the bass were there to be retrieved. Not usually! I have played back on my vinyl play back system direct to disc organ recordings (low of 16HZ) which are quite satisfying, and still the bass is not as good as the bass through a CD.
TT is Alex Mk IV with Rega arm and BPS.

I am not disputing that playback through analogue is perceived as more pleasing and satisfying, although I think that that is a matter of taste, but disputing the reasons that people are using for justifying their contention. It is not because there is more information to be retrieved on vinyl and that digital has less information.

You prefer vinyl and think that it is better. Leave it at that and stop trying to justify your preference by using objective arguments to prove a subjective point. You will have more credibility from my part anyway.

Santé,

Bob P.

Rockinroni...Perhaps your phono pickup could track LF vertical modulation of an LP groove, but there isn't any because the recording engineer was producing the LP for people with ordinary playback equipment.

Frankly, listening 15 to 20 dB into noise gives me a headache.

Peppy, we are talking about well recorded sources here; direct to disc recordings have dynamic range well in excess of 100db. There are many severely compressed CDs too, see Stereophile's coverage of the recent release of Floyd's DSOTM and Santana's Supernatural. Dynamic compression has become an engineering choice and is not inherent in the CD or LP media. Of course hearing noise 20db higher than the quietest sounds is far from optimal, but is throwing away all sounds below an arbitrary threshold somehow better?

I reread all the above... whew!!1
I have gone back to LP. I still have 800 CDs. but I just bought 1,000 LPs (all classical pre 1970) for about $500.
Now I have enough music to keep me occupied for a LONG time. And I didn't buy one new recording. (I am boycotting the recording industry until they figure out how to live with free downloading).
The music on many of the LPs is way more alive than on most of my CDs. A few of the LPs are boring the way CD is boring, I don't know why, but those I can easily toss out.
Even with the cleaning, and noise, the LP is worth the effort. For those who disagree, thank God for the CD... we all win