How do you get past the pops and hiss of LPs?

Surface noise can be minimized by careful cleaning, and care of the records, but it will never go away completely. Some people learn to listen through it, while others (like me) find it distracting. CD's are the best answer.

There were various electronic devices that tried to reduce record surface noise. Phase Linear (Carver) made a dynamic multiband noise filter (Autocorrelator) which was very clever and fairly effective. There were also "Pop and Tick" eliminators.

Only one approach really worked...DBX records. However this was a compression/expansion dynamic range control system (similar to the system used for tape recorders) that required specially processed records to be played back through their electronics. It failed in the marketplace because too few records were available, and CD's came on the scene. I picked up the electronics and a dozen or so records for $25 just to see how it worked, and I was greatly impressed. Not only was surface noise completely eliminated, but the more uniform groove modulation of the compressed signal did wonders for performance of the phono pickup.

The best analog master tape recorders used DBX or other kinds of noise suppression, and produced results comparable to digital recorders...no hiss. But digital is a lot easier to work with when it comes to mixdown, so the world has gone digital. If you heard hiss on a CD it must have been a very early (or poor quality) master tape.

By the way, another common source of hiss is vacuum tubes. (Sorry about that).

As to LP's sounding better...I agree that they will sound different, and you may think, better. Mastering of the LP is different from the CD, and the RIAA equalization process, applied to the signal when the record is cut, and to your copy when you play it back is extreem and would be almost impossible to accomplish perfectly. Spectral balance will change. Also, in cutting LPs, it is common for LF signals (subwoofer fodder) to be mixed to monaural, because phono pickups don't do well with very low frequency vertical groove modulation. Of course this will affect the sound, and you may prefer it.

Rockinroni...Perhaps your phono pickup could track LF vertical modulation of an LP groove, but there isn't any because the recording engineer was producing the LP for people with ordinary playback equipment.

Frankly, listening 15 to 20 dB into noise gives me a headache.

Rockinroni...Shure my Shure finds lots of LF on LPs (my subwoofers are flat to 20 HZ). What I said was that these LF sounds are monophonic because of the way LP's are mastered so as to enable "entry level" pickups to play them. This is not necessarily bad, but it is different from digital sources where there is no reason to blend LF. Being different they will sound different. Better or worse is an opinion.

I agree with you that a good LP played with a good pickup and (as sean says) a linear tracking arm can sound really good. Problem is that when the music gets quiet that surface noise intrudes.

Isn't that where we came in?