The KEF C7 is a MUCH better speaker than those Polk or Klipsch speakers IMO. Not even close. The C7 is very good. The Polks are fair, but IMO those Klipsch speakers really stink.Terrible tweeters on those suckers!

The other one you might consider is the PSB Image T6, which is just excellent. I had them for two years before buying my Vandersteen Treos.

Saturday Audio Exchange has them for $1039 per pair. If you can afford them, I think you will love them.

Background noise will vary dramatically from LP to LP depending on the manufacturing quality of the LP itself, and its condition.

My system has excellent sound quality from LPs; better than many CDs in many cases.

One thing you may be having a problem with is the low-quality phono circuit in the Marantz.

If you get the Musical Fidelity V-LPS phono preamp and feed its output to the AUX or TUNER input on the Marantz, you will make a major improvement in the LP sound quality. You can get it for $199 from Music Direct or Amazon.

I had a terrible noise problem with a new Marantz PM6004 when playing vinyl and ended up sending it back (digital music was noiseless).

I ended up getting a Cambridge Audio amp and phono amp and there is no noise at all.

I hope you get it worked out.

DanB

When I listen to vinyl I turn off anything that might interfere. I turn off my sacd/cd player and any fluorescent lights. You might want to disconnect or turn off your computer. Phono preamps can be sensitive. My Simaudio Moon 110LP is fairly immune but I still shut some things down.