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

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

Kemp, another thing occured to me. There is a product for sale through several of the companies which sell new vinyl. Try www.amusicdirect.com It is called 'Premier' and it works great for cleaning old, and seemingly abused LPs. I have been using it for a few weeks along with a Sota record cleaner and the results have been very good. I'm concerned that some of the LPs you have are probably damaged, and will never sound new again, but this stuff has worked very well for me on some really grungy LPs. Good luck!

Elizabeth, thanks for adding the voice of reason!!! As long as each of us is convinced we own and use the perfect medium what difference does it make what anyone else thinks. Of course only half of us are right.

Motdaturd, seems your apologies are not addressed to the right person. Every fact that ever there was is tortured by subjective audiophiles, be they vinylists or proponents of digital, to the point of being unrecognizable. As I have said and repeated: you eat what you like and I'll eat what I like, don't tell me it's chocolate if it's Ex Lax. The original poster says he hears the noise and appears not to like it. I can only tell him that, except when the planets align and the moon is holding water, he will always hear surface noise from lps, if it is not present when the record is brand spanking new, he just has to wait and eventually the surface noise will be audible. Telling him to learn to like such noise is disingenuous at best.