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

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.

Is it so hard to understand that different individuals have different priorities and different prejudices?

Exactly. I do find it interesting that there seem to be a lot of people still into LP replay and we should ask why. If we sweep aside the far fetched reasons like mass hypnosis we are left with a couple of obvious things. It certainly cannot be the stability of the media. No one in their right mind wants to be careening a hard rock around a soft vinyl groove and all of the attendent cleaning, preening and aligning that goes along with it. So it is safe to say that it is not convenience either. Some would suggest nostalgia. But there are a lot of younger people into vinyl. I am the only one I know that uses an 8-track player in a high end system. There aren't many people posting here that the compact casette, elcasette or open reel tapes are the way to go, these would seem to engender nostalgic feelings too if that were the reason. Then why so many proponents of the LP? It must be that some prefer the sound, known technical shortcomings and all. But it may also be that some great music is only available on LP and will probably never be reissued on CD, just as there is great music on CD that will never be issued on LP.