Crackle and hiss on some albums

@bigtwin 

I stand corrected. Maybe washing first is only magic but it works for me.

@lewm 

Neither can I. But that has been my experience. 

Tanking a poorly designed phono preamp can contribute…. but inspection of supposedly clean LP under black light will reveal the sometimes UGLY truth….

I love it when a newbie vinyl user gets hit in the face with the reality of the medium.  New, used or otherwise, any vinyl is very often noisy.  There are pops, clicks, lead-in groove swooshing, warp wow, off-center pressings, etc.  But occasionally there will be a quiet, well-made record.  We deal with it and move on.  Record cleaning machines may help, but only to a certain degree.

Not "very often noisy", unless your collection was derived by shopping at Goodwill or at yard sales, but occasionally noisy, yes.

GHD, When you say it is your "experience" that turntables can enhance or reduce ticks and pops, do you mean to say that with the same tonearm, cartridge, setup, phono stage, and LPs, changing only the turntable per se made a difference? I'm more than skeptical but of course I am in no position to doubt what you say.