Living with popping and crackling

While I may be coming to this discussion a little late, it matters very little to me if some of my vinyl records have noise. If I wanted dead silence, I would listen exclusively to CDs. After 20 years of CD enjoyment, there is no substitution for a good vinyl album; a CD cannot compare in areas of naturalness, warmth, and life-likeness. Many CDs have an electromechanical overlay to some degree. Fine vinyl has soul and body; it's alive. Whereas many CDs lack bloom and air.

To reduce the noise on vinyl, it's been my experience to use one of those recording cleaning machines from Nitty Gritty, Disc Doctor, or VPI. Brushes don't seem to do as well. The surface of each record needs to be cleaned and then vacuumed to remove all the dust particles that will either contribute to noise or to premature record wear. But I think I may be stating the obvious.

Any work of art, any fine wine, or any great musical performance is often imperfect, but this lack of abstract perfection has never kept me from enjoying these experiences. The same is true of vinyl. Certainly vinyl is not as pristine sounding as digital, but neither is it as sterile or clinical either.

Thus, when given the opportunity to listen to a good vinyl album or its CD counterpart, I will always choose vinyl with everything else being equal.

Hi Papertrail
"Is there a certain amount of popping and crackling to be expected with almost any lp?" Well yes and no.
As 4yanx & Dougdeacon mentioned, it really depends on the vinyl and the label. Doug mentions Harmonia Mundi. There are also the Classic Records releases on Quitex vinyl and some of the other reissues of Jennifer Warnes' "Famous Blue Raincoat", Weavers at Canegie Hall, most singles, Janis Ian's "Breaking Silence", Sarah McLachlan(Classic Records) which are also very quiet.

As someone else mentioned, everything in the playback chain affects the noise level - cart, arm, table, phono and most importantly, the setup. One of the key areas which can emphasize the noise is if the VTA is higher at the pivot point. Lowering VTA can help, but too much and the highs are gone.

Record cleaning certainly goes a long way to removing most of the pops and ticks, but if the vinyl is damaged, nothing can be done. In this respect, Buggtussel is very good and recommended.
http://www.buggtussel.com/vinylzyme.asp

"It would seem to me that the more expensive/high end equip. would be more sensitive and thus cause more surface noise if the lp is not perfect."
There was an argument that expensive/high end MC carts can dig deeper into the grooves least damaged by MM carts due to their stylus profiles, etc... How true this is, I don't know, but certainly I find that after a good run through my RCM, the noise level is significantly lower with my MC. Certainly some carts seem to be better trackers than others. Some are more quiet or less affected by surface noise. Perhaps Doug/4yanx can list carts which they have found to be better in this respect.

At the end of the day, there is a certain amount of raw energy in LPs which cannot be matched by CD/HDCD/DVDA/SACD. Though the latter is bridging the gap, I still enjoy LPs tremendously. Its learning to cope with vinyl and maintaining it which allows me to enjoy the music even more.

What noise? Oh that noise. I didn't notice. I was into the music.

Listening to LPs (music) = bliss
Listening to your system and evaluating how good it sounds = pops and cracks

Hi Cmk,
I dearly (very dearly) wish that Classic Records vinyl was as quiet as most 20+ year old harmonia mundis, Telfunkens, Archiv Productions, Eratos...

But it isn't IME. I have hundreds of CR reissues and very few can match any of those labels for vinyl quality, and the newest ones are the noisiest. They should have named it Noise-X IMO.

Sorry for bein' a grouch. I should take Robm321's advice!

Hey Doug
Well, I really, really wish I had access to all your harmonia mundis, teles, archivs, etc... so you should consider yourself one of those fortunate souls who have such treasures. The rest of us beggers don't really have much options. :(

but yeah, the quality seems to be falling of late, perhaps they are just rushing to cash in on this vinyl revival(?). Or maybe its the quality of the vinyl, not virgin anymore?