Is it possible to have vinyl nearly noise free?

To be clear, I only do my tremendous cleaning effort 'Once'.  After that, I usually just give my records a wet rinse with the VPI and RO water. They stay clean for a longtime. Perhaps, I will pick off a occasional piece of dust with the discwasher brush. (I have forced air heat / cool systems)

For years, my vinyl has played quietly.  I agree with whoopycat, My big effort takes time (20) minutes per record. After a good cleaning though; good clean pressings, hardware that plays quiet, a rinse and a dusting will provide you with good music with few and faint, (if any) tics and pops.

Probably, one of the reasons that I have used Lyra cartridges, is that they play quietly. Equipment that plays quiet, is a big part of this equation IMO.

TT, tonearm, cartridge and phonostage are needed.

It is possible to get them out but!!! lots of work and kind of scary  

https://www.instructables.com/id/Bring-Ruined-Records-Back-to-Life/

@atmasphere ,

The next obvious question...Do you ever/feel a need to clean your stylus?

Hi tubelvr1,

nearly possible, depends from:
LP quality
Record player
stylus profile
quiet and balanced phono stage with proper loading

I didn't say it before, but I only clean once upon acquisition of the record. After that it's a dust brush and Talisman until it is just too dusty. Then, a rinse with Regents water and the conditioner, let dry after vacuuming for about ten minutes and I'm off listening to it again. I always change the sleeve then as well.

After the cleaning it won't help unless the rinse takes away any residue, cleaning liquid and the contents of those liquids. The vacuum cleaner just sucks up the liquid that is left. The Regents water is the purest and acts like a magnet for any micro-dust left as part of the cleaning process. The conditioner has surfactants that allow the water it contains to get deep into the grooves reducing the waters elasticity and deep rinsing the groove.

I keep the stylus clean with FunTac. Peter Lederman recommends it highly to all of his customers. It is very effective and safest of all needle cleaning that I have found.

I agree the system set up is crucial to an enjoyable, less noisy listen. Also the relative quality of the equipment may help as well. During my slough to Nirvana I have tried many different carts, turntables and tone arms. The electronics and speakers I have settled on are very unforgiving when it comes to sonic anomalies. They reproduce them faithfully so the turntable and cart cannot add anything or I will hear it load and clear. Some carts seem to accentuate the noise to my ears.

Everyone who posted here who is serious about clean records has their own process. None is better that the other from what I see. Many are probably more complex than they need to be. Every process listed is better than no cleaning. It is a lot of work, but worth it. And yes, there are still some ticks and pops even after this rigmarole.


@lwal22
If I want to listen to a silent digital facsimile of my records I use a pro audio (Lynx Hilo) A/D-D/A converter. It is high resolution. The computer software removes virtually all the tics, pops and hiss if they exist and lowers the noise floor by about 12 dB. The playback is marvelously quiet, but a digital facsimile of the record. A Sugar Cube creates a digital facsimile. It is no longer pure analogue. I want 100% pure analogue when doing serious listening.

Rollin