For me, once you get past all the OTHER stuff that brings vinyl down, it pretty much always comes down to noise/hum/hiss. Especially with MC. I use a 9V battery powered MC step up from the early '80s (based on Marshall Leach's Audio project)--very sensitive to placement. Move it an inch here or there, up or down, toward or away from the preamp, and noise may increase significantly.
The newer stuff is probably better, in that regard.
You get used to it. At moderate volume it's never an issue, and in any case it is masked by the record. When switching over to digits it's like Mr. Clean entered the room.
I've been upgrading my phono chain. One option I seriously considered were a pair of passive Stevens & Billington step-up transformers. Very high quality and technology that has barely changed in many decades. Plenty of people take that route, but they tend to be specific to the loading of cartridges.
My phono had a separate power supply that is distant and well shielded. The vinyl revival has brought on a lot of really good and very quiet m/c phono amplifiers. There was always the EAR 834P, made for almost 50 years and a favourite design for the DIY boys. Simple and elegant. I had the upgraded EAR Phonobox and it was dead quiet, very enjoyable, but lacked a bit of pace. All the same, great value.
I get the Mr Clean, comment, some may say more sterile than clean, vinyl just has that something it's so difficult to explain. I was streaming something last night and after 10 minutes just had to get out the vinyl version and play that instead.
Good vinyl playback can be visceral and tangible, unlike some digital, it's not a matter of frequency response as others have suggested.
I find the irony is that digital audio equipment is easy to measure (and much of it is), but often the differences are well below audible levels, whereas vinyl playback equipment is often not measured, or not measured properly, but is very easy to tell apart by listening.
The fact that with many phono amplifiers you can adjust the gain on-the-fly to reduce noise levels to an acceptable level makes measurements less important.
The problem with ASR's best rated Cambridge Audio phono is that, amongst other things, it is a bit short on m/c gain (60db) and you can't adjust it. It is designed to be quiet within its limitations for a very cost-effective device.