battling the pops and clicks

You missed my point. Analog playback is an incredibly vibrant part of the audiophile marketplace. That's a fact. Lots of new customers to market to. Couple that with yesterday's knowledge about noise eliminators and today's top drawer designers eager to make a buck. Then why aren't they doing it? My position is that it's not an issue and it's not because people can listen around it beyond something very minor. Honestly, you should give a listen to a good to great vinyl front end. I think you would find it more than satisfying and not at all like you remember it.

Many things affect surface noise in general and some aspects of the selected components can enhance clicks, pops and surface noise. I doubt that your phono stage is the culprit and your cartridge is probably not causing it either unless it's not properly installed or adjusted in one of its many parameters. Then again some cartridges are by nature very quiet in the groove. I am not familiar with your turntable or arm but that is where my suspicions lie. Others with experience here may correct me and I'll accept that.

I'm hoping that you can connect with another person in your area that has been successful with analog. You will then have an opportunity to evaluate every aspect that affects your complaints and find a solution. Contrary to Eldartford's tiresome commentary on this issue, and never offering any help at all, vinyl playback can rival CD's in its silence and it needn't break the bank. Remember that this is a man that in these very forums admitted he has never really cleaned a record. How can he possibly have anything to contribute other than a lame attempt at making you question the benefits you are hearing in spite of these solvable issues.

Feel free to contact me offline and we can arrange a phone call to discuss the possible culprit(s).

Dsockel makes a very valid point about cleaning records with the exception of the quiet operation of Loricraft machines. Also, newbies often have their price point set too low to enjoy a quieter presentation. Anyone that doesn't believe vinyl playback can be extremely quiet hasn't listened to a quality linear tracking tonearm hung with a great cartridge. I tire of explaining this so let me move on to the more common pivot arms. Many turntables, arms, cartridges (previous items amplify through mechancical shortcomings) and even phono stages actually magnify these noises electronically based on my experience. With a properly adjusted VTA the surface noise associated with generic vinyl seems outside the room and in my case isn't as loud as my homes ambient noise level. I've spent over 40 years collecting vinyl during which time I've always had a turntable where the tonearm and cartridges are bought separately. I've been able to replace defective software with better ones so I rarely am playing a record with scratches. I sometimes scratch my head when reading replies to this kind of question. Man, Raul has more stuff than you can shake a stick at. I'm surprised that he is accepting of anything more than a very occassional click or pop of reduced volume. Of course, among his many cartridges he doesn't own one by my manufacturer of choice which is the quietest in the groove I've ever heard as well as the most pleasing presentation I've yet to experience except moving up the food chain in the ZYX lineup, and he states that he doesn't like them too! Then again Raul doesn't like tubes. I'm sure however that because there is more than one way to skin a cat his system sounds marvelous and I'm not offering any criticism against him. We make our choices for ourselves and not others. I guess that if my music room were soundproof I would actually hear more noise since certainly with a pivot arm it will not be as dead quiet as CD's. In the real world of heating, air conditioning, cooking and other people living with you not to mention traffic, lawn mowing from neighbors and such there is little and infrequent noise differences between CD's and my analog front end, lead in and out grooves excepting. Synergy with every aspect of the analog front end cannot be over emphasized at all. Stand, table, arm, cartridge, mat, clamp, cables, lighting, dediciated lines, phono stage and cleaning of records and cartridge must work in harmony. I've always advised newbies to spend around $2500 used for long term happiness and have been raked over the coals for doing so. I still stand behind this as the sweet spot for price/preformance.

Elartford,

You may have lived through that period but didn't achieve success and admittedly never cleaned a record. Anyone blessed with a sense of reason will make a conclusion that instead of properly caring for you records and making informed choices about cartridge/tonearm/table and phono stage bits that work together in harmony without enhancing the noise you complain about you chose instead to go the electonic route. You may have spent a lot of money but you spent it in the wrong directions and you have nothing to contribute except negatives. I guess the best you have to offer Ryan is to just accept it. Your ignorance about the current status of analog is staggering and obviously you missed your chance to have it right long ago. I enjoy my digital as well as my analog and take no issue with your media of choice BUT you are doing a dis-service with your postings and I for one wish you would stop it. You have nothing to offer that resembles help. Your posts probably leave too many with a gut feeling they wasted their money and that's not the case at all. You should be ashamed. Again, I've confronted you. I only hope someone else takes over where I leave off when the time comes.

Impepinnovations,

If the dynamic range, clicks, pops and general surface noise are so prevalent with current analog devices then why in the world isn't audiophiledom filled with opportunities to purchase these electronic correction products in today's market, now only new and improved? It seems every high end manufacturer must being missing a golden opportunity here. Never has an audiophile been in the sweet spot in my room and ever offered any criticism about dynamic range while listening to vinyl. In a scientific sense, yes there is some surface noise. But just like having to put my head close to a speaker to hear circuit noise, one would have to go to similiar extremes to hear surface noise from a seated listening postion. Yes, there are exceptions with some badly recycled vinyl or the occassional record that suffered some sort of permanent damage. Those are the exception however. You might also note that I was not attacking digital and have no problem with digital master tapes except records mastered from a digital source early on, say 1982-1989. If that recording sampling rate was put on a disk then the debate as to the superior format would be over.

Ryan,

I've sent you a private email about record cleaning since I didn't want to start any more controvery in this thread. Cleaning of vinyl is a pretty divisive topic in these threads. I urge you to try several products, label what you used on the outter sleeve and monitor how well they do over a period of time.

Good luck,
Patrick