tt surface noise reduce or tolerate?

Few ever mention the inherent physical flaws of LPs: poor quality vinyl, bad pressings, or simply the physical nature of the reproduction method itself.

No amount of cleaning will eliminate the noise inherent in the medium.

It's a major factor behind the invention of the CD.

Sometimes we forget that many of us were listening to vinyl for decades before the invention of CD, so we were accustomed to the normal surface noise of vinyl. Our expectations of what is possible regarding quiet vinyl are not the same as those of vinyl newbies who have only the sound of CDs as a baseline. For these folks, silence on LPs may be an unrealistic expectation.

06-23-08: Detlof
...vinyl reproduction can be so quiet that Tvad would be quite surprised.

I'm certain this is true. However, I maintain that the simple physical contact of a polished and sharpened gemstone on a vinyl surface makes it impossible for LP playback to be free of surface noise.

I'm also not interested in the vinyl versus digital debate.

Readers should also be aware that the OP has budgetary considerations mentioned in another thread, and unless he has changed is budget from one allowing the purchase of an unmodified Technics SL1200 and a stretch to purchase a Benz Micro Ace cartridge, then the discussion as it pertains to the OP may be moot.

I would think that the surface noise should be no greater than tape hiss. If that means anything to you.
Dan_ed (System | Threads | Answers)

IMO, that's a very good analogy for someone familiar only with CDs. Plenty of CDs have tape hiss in the quiet sections.

It's interesting that LPs would not also have the tape hiss audible, since they are manufactured from magnetic tapes that often have tape hiss (unless the LPs are rare direct to disk recordings). This doesn't make sense to me.

06-23-08: Detlof
...with some LPs, even in silent passages, there is just no surface noise and I swear that my ears are still good. Of course this is not true of all Lps, but there seems to be vinyl which is practically without noise, if everything else is done right.

Agreed.

06-23-08: Detlof
Oddly enough, if comparing this to the the original LPs drawn from the same sources, you hear no such thing, possibly because it is masked by surface noise, when playing the LP.

That's my belief. Tape hiss being masked by surface noise.

I suspect those quiet LPs that are free of tape hiss were mastered from tapes that had very little tape hiss.

Amen.