Living with popping and crackling

doesn't really bother me too much as long as it's not to prominate. One of the trademarks of vinyl I guess.

honestly, i was surprised how little popping/crackling there is. maybe it's the table? most of my listening is crack-free... ;)

My experience has been that the most important thing is the condition of of the vinyl. You can eliminate some/most if the unwanted noise is due to dirt with good cleaning practices. For many tables grounding the bearing can help. Better table, arm and cartridge also help but there will always be some clicking and popping in your collection. Everyone has to decide what their tolerance level is for noise. I do it for every used LP I bring home and clean up. I rarely put up with it on new vinyl, but even new vinyl develops clicks although I clean all new LPs before playing.

Every aspect of vinyl playback affects surface noise. Just think about each tiny link in this long chain as I'm too lazy today to write about each. The right combination of parts along with proper setup and cleaning will provide very satisfactory results and it isn't that expensive if you do your research and spend your available funds wisely. Everyone that experiences my vinyl playback for the first time always asks, "are all your records in such nice shape"? However, a few used records I have that look new are horrible sounding. This is the result of the original owner carving new information into the grooves with a very dirty sytlus. This cannot be overcome.

I've also found that some audiophiles have a very low tolerance for surface noise having become accustomed to a CD's inherent black background. If this is your mind set then vinyl is not for you.

My feeling is that it will take $2500 for a quality used table, arm, cartridge, phono stage and cleaning system to bring the level of performance to a very nice level. Another $1000 would bring you a level of playback that will compete closely with the best if you choose wisely.

find a friendly dealer who deals in turntables and has a record cleaner, then take in one of the lps you are most familiar with, clean it up and listen to it on a good rig - then you'll get a sense of what's optimally possible. it's in the dealer's interest to do this since he then has you hooked!