I went thru the same thing till I started building my own wheels. One thing I gave up was trying any kind of "saving weight" fators. I build my wheels with Velocity Deep V's. On the rear anyway. Rim si 520 grams alone. I have heavy buds that have used cxp33 and had problems even with the 367 hole. I say go cxp30 or Deep V (30 mm high profile rims).
I used 32 spoke hubs. After 8-9,000 miles, haven't had any problems.
One thing that I noticed is that when you take a wheel back to a shop, they will true it BUT, it needs to be retensioned after a few hundred miles. Excuse me for this but most shops won't take the time to do it . Yeah, they true your whell to make it straight, but ask them if they retensioned it, probably not!
The reason your wheel makes noise is cause the spokes are not tensioned and allowed to move around and rattle/ping/swuak/whatever. I've met several riders that experience breakage after retruing. Yeah, it's stright, but not tight.
I built one set of wheels without any prep as a test. I retensioned after 300 miles. Been 8-9,000 and not even out of true. I read Sheldon Brown's site. He says don't even really need it if a wheel is byilt properly becasue of the exact spec of new spokes now adays.
Another thing is that when I built them, I payed attention to the lead and trailing spoke directions.
The trailing spokes should be laced on the inside of the flange for reinforcemnt of the spokes. Leading spkes don't get as much torque, so not as important. SOme might think nonsense, but it has worked for me.
I had a Deep V bilt at a high end store, payed the fool $100 to build it. It rattled after 20 miles. Had to turn back. Spokes were so loose, and he left scrap metal inside the rim locked in by the rim tape. I took it back and he told me, "some wheels make noise, supposed to be that way".
That was whn I started building my own. I tore down and reassembeld the wheel using the same parts, No problems since,not a sound!
The wheel on my Canni, I paid $25 for the Deep V on a clearance rack. DA hub ($99), and $20 for 32 14 g spokes. Has about 6,000 miles, no problems. Cheaper to build your won andyou know they will get the TLC needed!
