Surface noise

Have you done anything to load the cartridge? Grados seem to like about 8000-12,000 ohms.

Grados don't seem to like excessive tracking forces. I would not go above 1.7 grams.

As per loading. There is a lot of discussion about loading MC cartridges (most of it bogus- loading MC cartridges is all about energy at RF frequencies rather than audio frequencies- there are other threads regarding this matter).

But MM cartridges should be loaded too. 'Loading' is the act of putting a load (usually a resistor) across the output of the cartridge (or input of the preamp). Because they are higher impedance than MC cartridges, the loading value is much higher as well. Like I mentioned before, Grados like something in the neighborhood of 8K-12K ohms. Your stock phono section will have something around 47K. This value will allow most MM cartridges to 'ring' (distort). By loading them, the ringing is reduced or eliminated and you will find the presentation much smoother, often more 3D, with less surface noise yet the same bandwidth (assuming that you got the loading value correct).

If the loading value is too low, the highs will suffer and you will loose output.

Davide256, you missed one- design of the phono section can affect ticks and pops quite a lot.

Bdunn, the first thing to do is to determine the value that you need. There are several ways to do that, you could get a stereo potentiometer, wire it as a rheostat, put that across the inputs of the phono section and dial it in. Radio Shack makes a 100K stereo potentiometer that would work nice for that.

Or you could start with a resistor value and see what effect it has. This can be a little trickier as you have to change the resistor to change the loading. That's why I like to use the pot.

But since you have a Grado, I already know that most of them like something in the 8-12K range. Your input resistance of the preamp is 47K, which has to be taken into account. So I would get a pair of resistors that are about 17-20K to use as loads.

Now some preamps don't allow you to do this easily and others do. Its been my experience that you don't want to interrupt the phono cable on its way to the preamp with an additional connector, but that would be one way to do it- get an RCA to RCA adapter and install the resistor inside it. Otherwise you might have to install the resistor across the input connection of the preamp. Of the two the latter is preferred as long as the installation isn't difficult.

Davide256, so did I, from 1974 until now... but I was not discrediting your comments, FWIW. Simply adding to them.