The Agony of Surface Noise

[Primalsea]

One of my main bug bears with vinyl is surface noise, it seems to be a constant battle to get rid of it.

I phoned Mantra Audio one and asked if there were any cartridges that were known to have minimal surface noise and the answer seem a bit counter intuitive. They said that cheaper cartridges have less contact with the record and so have less surface noise. The more contact the needle has the more surface noise you will get.

I thought that more expensive stylus's contacted the record much deeper in the grooves where any surface scratches would have no effect. So as long as the record was clean there would be less noise.

Maybe someone could shoot me with their Point of View Gun on this one.