how to reduce background hmmmmm/noise

My mission is to cd-r my collection of spoken word lps. I've an adequate turntable and cartridge. I'm running the turntable into the phono stage on a yamaha receiver that's more designed for home theatre, and from the reciever into a marantz cdr. Problem: background noise. I'm going to upgrade this whole lot sans the turntable with the goal of eliminating as much as possible any background noise (spoken word lps have many silences, I want them to be silent!). How should I proceed? What matters? What's best bang for buck? (line conditioners?, high end cables? get good separates with good phono stage?) The background noise I'm currently getting is not feedback or grounding problems, it seems to be ambient noise that's introduced somewhere along the signal path. Your advice...