So you're doing pretty good so far then. Good. Silent vinyl is wonderful but the magic is where its really at and you already caught on to that so are on the right track.
I don't want to make too much of surface noise, because the more and longer I do this the less I care about it. It really is about the magic. But in terms of surface noise clean is only a part of it.
Most of what people call groove noise is really stylus jitter. Even tracking a perfectly smooth and silent groove excites the natural harmonic resonance of the whole stylus/cantilever/suspension/motor moving mass. Vibrations go up the cantilever, to the motor (coil or magnet) which being much more massive reflects it right back down to the stylus, which being light can only dissipate this energy by bouncing and hitting the groove walls.
When you read reviews talking about how some really high end cartridge seems to make groove noise disappear, this is why. Take it from a guy who has gone from Stanton 681EEE to Benz to Koetsu this is definitely true. The really good carts not only float images free of the speakers they also seem to float the music free of the noise. Its not that the noise isn't there, but it is less and even more importantly its of a different character. Its like cheap cartridges aren't good enough to separate the two, the really good ones are.
So a really good cartridge is totally worth the money. The question as always is more like, but is the cartridge really the best thing to upgrade? To answer that you have to listen carefully and make changes and get a handle on what in your system is doing what. What is contributing the most, what is detracting the least, from what you want.
Then if its the cartridge, since you already know that for now at least surface noise is important then pay attention to comments about that in reviews. I would think AT would not be on my list, Ortofon maybe, Soundsmith for sure.
With a budget that low however I would be looking at even cheaper tweaks that will really help, like a sand box, cones or footers under the turntable.
I don't want to make too much of surface noise, because the more and longer I do this the less I care about it. It really is about the magic. But in terms of surface noise clean is only a part of it.
Most of what people call groove noise is really stylus jitter. Even tracking a perfectly smooth and silent groove excites the natural harmonic resonance of the whole stylus/cantilever/suspension/motor moving mass. Vibrations go up the cantilever, to the motor (coil or magnet) which being much more massive reflects it right back down to the stylus, which being light can only dissipate this energy by bouncing and hitting the groove walls.
When you read reviews talking about how some really high end cartridge seems to make groove noise disappear, this is why. Take it from a guy who has gone from Stanton 681EEE to Benz to Koetsu this is definitely true. The really good carts not only float images free of the speakers they also seem to float the music free of the noise. Its not that the noise isn't there, but it is less and even more importantly its of a different character. Its like cheap cartridges aren't good enough to separate the two, the really good ones are.
So a really good cartridge is totally worth the money. The question as always is more like, but is the cartridge really the best thing to upgrade? To answer that you have to listen carefully and make changes and get a handle on what in your system is doing what. What is contributing the most, what is detracting the least, from what you want.
Then if its the cartridge, since you already know that for now at least surface noise is important then pay attention to comments about that in reviews. I would think AT would not be on my list, Ortofon maybe, Soundsmith for sure.
With a budget that low however I would be looking at even cheaper tweaks that will really help, like a sand box, cones or footers under the turntable.