Do you clean your records before play, after play, or once (and then never again)?

New records need to be cleaned before play to remove mold release agents that are left on the records from the stampers. It's harder to remove this after a stylus has pressed them into the vinyl grooves. You may not hear pops ans such, but you will not hear all of the music either.

I play new records a few times to "de-bur" the newly pressed groove before using the RCM.

Many older audiophile record covers noted to "de-bur", by playing a few times, resulting in improved sonics.

don_c55

From my memory those record labels said the reason one may hear a few ticks on their new records was that they did not de-horn their cutter head. Thus, the end user had this issue.

I can't imagine that not cleaning a new record until playing a few times would in any way be beneficial to a lp.

I don't always clean my records, but when I do (with a VPI 16.5) it's before I play the record