Reducing noise in audio circuit (optical pickup + op amp)
Several things:

A long cable carrying the most sensitive node in the whole system is a bad idea.  Carefully shield and then tightly couple the amplifier to the pickup.  Then you can send the higher level lower impedance signal over the long cable.

A 741 is a joke in this application.  Look for a low noise opamp.  There are amplifiers specifically for audio applications where noise matters a lot.  Even a general purpose device like a TL07x will be lots better than a 741, both in gain and bandwidth.

Applications that need good lineariry and frequecy response usually use a photodiode in reverse bias configuration.  Think of it as a diode that leaks proprtional to light.

Don't try to get all the gain in a single stage, particularly the first one.  The first stage should take the little input signal and make is stronger and lower impedance such that it is much less susceptible to noise.  The first stage amp can do this better if not run close to its gain-bandwidth product.  You don't have to care about offset voltage since audio can be AC coupled between stages.  The second stage can then make a nice strong signal that can be sent over 2m wire.



Audio circuit design is mostly about thinking carefully about noise every step of the way.  The bandwidth may be low, but the signal to noise ratio needs to be very high.