First Tom killing me, now you Jerome.
I have this album, and have problems listening to it as you mentioned.
Cripe, looks like I gotta find another 9" arm to mount a mono cart to.
Excessive surface noise can spoil the listening experience on a recording such as this. My copy has no visible surface scuffs or scratches, and for the most part it sounds good on my Ortofon Jubilee stereo cartridge. But there were spots here and there where surface noise would cause a distraction that would take me out of the music. I'm listening to it now on my Ortofon SPU mono and am completely amazed. With a stereo cartridge I like to think of the surface noise as being on top of the music. With a mono cartridge the surface noise is still there, but it is pushed deep into the background to the point where one can barely notice it, if one can notice it at all.
--Jerome