Frustrated with Vinly

Don’t assume that because you’re satisfied with less than the best or too lazy to try to improve playback qualities that others are the same as you. Nobody is telling someone new to the hobby that they have to clean their records or take other steps to improve playback but they may choose to do so and it will have positive effects.

I generally don’t clean brand new records before I play them and I buy used records at a store that uses a record cleaner before they put them out for sale. If I buy them somewhere else then I do get out my record cleaner and make sure there is not a bunch of crap on them before I put them on my turntable.

You made a lot of incorrect assumptions.

You guys are free to clean everyday, but if i do not hear any problem i do not clean with special devices, it’s been pointed out before that professional sellers clean their vintage record with vacuum cleaners prior to sell them, i do not buy on flea markets. To my eyes my records are clean visually and does not sound dirty when i play them.

I improve the sound quality with different cartridges and phonostages. Since i do not have a digital background in music at all (i don’t care about digital) i am fine with vinyl, i’m not sure what you are trying to achieve when you’re cleaning them (sound like a CD or what?) or maybe they are so dirty, but i tried vacuum cleaning at the local shop, it was a good point to make sure my record were clean before i cleaned them, because i did not find huge improvement. I am more concerned about the condition of the vinyl, because even if you will clean VG record it will never be a VG+, you can’t wipe away scratches on surface.

A Near Mint condition record without any cleaning is better than cleaned VG.
Condition is far more important, because scratches on surface is annoying, this is what makes huge pops and cracks in the system.

I have no idea why do you want to clean a MINT condition or NEW record if the sound is just great ?
This is audiophilia at their best.

If you will look under microscope on everything around you will see it’s not clean, not sterile, so what ? Shall we turn on the ultra violet light to kill the microbes ? 

P.S. I do clean my styli and trying to keep my record clean without overestimating the problem. 

The others that I am researching right now are: rega, project, music hall, mobile fidelity and even goldenote.

Do you know what is the difference between Belt Drive turntables and Direct Drive ? 

Look at brand new Technics SL1200GR if you want a proper turntable for the next 30 years without service. The cost is about $1700 in USA. 

@chakster Cleaning a record with my VPI 16.5 takes maybe 2 or 3 minutes, really not much more time than it would take to run a brush over the record. 

The VPI is like a turntable.  You put a record on it and you squirt a little cleaning solution on it, spin it around a couple of times with the cleaning brush and then you vacuum it for two revolutions, flip to the other side and repeat.  I don't see spending two or three minutes getting the record clean before I listen for 40 minutes to be a huge ordeal.

Of the 6 or 7 record stores within 45 minutes of me, there's only one that I know of that cleans their used records.  That is where I buy most of my used records, so I don't spend a lot of time cleaning used records.  When I order records from Discogs, I always clean those.  As I mentioned, I don't normally clean new records, but if I open it and it's covered with a bunch of dust from a cheap inner sleeve, it gets cleaned.

I grew up on vinyl and frankly am surprised at how quiet some records can be when played back on a nice system.  The little bit of noise I hear doesn't bother me, but I don't care for loud pops when I'm intently listening to the music.  I'm not sure cleaning does much for those, if it does, that's great. 

In most cases, I don't notice the night and day differences some claim after cleaning a record, but I can tell you there have been a few times when a record didn't seem to be playing well and I cleaned it and it sounded dramatically better.

A while ago I had cut back on how often I used the cleaner.   I was listening to records with my girlfriend one night and the record was sounding noisy and not very dynamic.  She noticed it too and said "Why don't you try cleaning it?".  I said "I bought it from __________ (the store that cleans all their records), so it's probably not going to make any difference, but I'll give it a try".  I wasn't expecting it to help at all.  I cleaned it, and most of the noise went away.  Since then, I've been using the machine more often.

Clean, don't clean... I don't care.  What I don't understand is why you're trying to convince people it's not helpful, or that it's time consuming or hard to do.  Those are all falsehoods.

You can buy after-market end of record lifting devices so don’t let manual only tables turn you off. That said, I already recommended a semi-auto Technics 1500c if you can't stretch to a 1200GR. Forget the Thorens. A used VPI Classic might also suit. 

I’m with Chakster on this. I try to buy original pressings in Ex to M condition.  I clean with a quick swipe with a carbon fiber brush before use.  No problems whatsoever.  With the amount of money spent on cleaning devices, I would rather buy a few more rare original near mint gems. 
 I’m sure that ultrasonically cleaned records probably make a difference, I just haven’t felt the need on my system with my records.