Is there a problem with Decca's new packaging for vinyl records?

Most of the mass market records come in printed inner sleeves like that which I don’t believe are intended for long term storage but for the edification of the listener with liner notes and or lyrics.

Instead of any kind of wet cleaning I would use a good quality CF brush while spinning the turntable platter unpowered not more than one revolution and then sweeping the line of debris collected to the edge of the record. Acquire a silicon roller, I personally use an "In the Groove" starting with the top of the record label at 12 o’clock, roll first down the left of the spindle from the top toward you and then to the right of the spindle. It will take multiple passes lifting the roller to ensure complete coverage. Then rotate the platter a quarter turn and repeat the process.

If you have the surface of the record properly illuminated, you will see the effectiveness of the roller’s ability to remove the marks left by these sleeves.  In addition, if you concentrate with light pressure the rollers edge in what look like particularly troublesome areas it will literally lift imbedded matter out of the grooves. Though it’s not fool proof, I use this method with every new record and somewhat less intensively with every record I play.

I will add that after the first play you should repeat this process before turning the record over because your stylus which is really the only way of contacting the most intricate surfaces of the groove will push any remaining matter in the groove to the surface of the record which you can immediately remove with the roller. Your next play will be even quieter!

Reserve wet cleaning for used record purchases and keep it simple and only do it once. If it doesn’t result in a comfortably quiet surface, return the record. Spin Clean following the manufacturer’s instructions implicitly works almost every single time.

The OP stated he purchased the CD simultaneously.  Were they sold together?

@mahler123 

No, they are not sold together.

I ordered the vinyl and the CD versions as separate line items in the same order.  They were shipped in one package, along with other vinyl records from Hyperion.

The vinyl was about 250% more expensive than the CD,

By way of background, I am trying to find out for myself if analogue (vinyl) really is better than digital, for well-recorded classical music (where I have a very good idea of what it should sound like!).

I don't expect vinyl to come anywhere close to multi-channel SACD, so when I discover a recording that I want to buy, my rules are to go for the SACD if the recording is available on SACD.  Otherwise, if it is on vinyl and unlikely to be a frequent play, I buy the vinyl.

In this case, the performance is stunningly good and Decca does not issue it on SACD.  So for the first time in my life, I bought the CD and vinyl versions simultaneously.  Unfortunately, because of packaging damage or transit damage, the vinyl is almost unlistenable.  The vinyl was first released on March 24, 2023, before my previous Decca records (Beethoven Triple Concerto) which was released on October 4, 2024.  It came in a normal paper liner and is fine. 

I now have a dilemma because I want to buy Decca's Flying Dutchman (release date April 18, 2025) and Britten cello works (release date May 9, 2025).

As for my quest to answer the analogue / digital dilemma, I have discovered that

1. a lot of vinyl has gone through a digital stage so a lot of the hype is based on bulldust
2. I could almost instantly pick when my player was outputting multi-channel at CD quality rather than at SACD quality
3. I am now pretty agnostic to whether CD or vinyl is playing

No doubt a chorus will strike up to say that I should be streaming. I do download from Presto Classical (monthly subscription) if I am uncertain that I will like a performance. But as far as I am aware, no streaming service gets anywhere near SACD quality for classical music.

@faustuss 

Thanks for your input.  I am not sure what mass market records are?

I decided to go down the aqueous cleaning route, particularly using a contact-free ultrasonic cleaner.  See @antinn's book Precision Aqueous Cleaning of Vinyl Records-3rd Edition - The Vinyl Press.

In my opinion much of the debris collected by records is sub microscopic - in other words, it cannot be resolved using a conventional visible light-microscope.

However, the damage done to the Decca records in transit is not just the creation of detritus through abrasion of the liner.  In my opinion, the debris has been ground into the grooves causing physical damage akin to scratches.  No amount of cleaning can fix a scratch!

@richardbrand 

I don’t mean to be snarky here but somehow you have imbibed the propaganda that vinyl is a higher resolution medium than bog standard CD.  You also seem to a priori believe that multichannel SACD is superior to CD.

   I am more sympathetic to the second assumption as I have 2 multichannel systems in my home and a substantial number of SACDs, Blu Rays, and DVD-Audios.  There have been a few SACDs-not many- where the multichannel version was inferior to the two channel incarnation.  The Hyperion label, for example, made poor sounding SACDs and stopped issuing them.

  However the assumption that analog is a priori superior to digital has always just been nonsense.  For me there is no competition for the black backgrounds and extended dynamic range of digital, particularly in Classical Music.  
  LP has been remarkably successful in its Resurrection and promotion of myth.  People are just in love with artifact and willing to shell out buck bucks to enjoy sonic sludge and then crow about it.

  My LP is listening is reserved for those few favorite albums of yesteryear that were never reissued digitally (or only as mp3 or part of a huge box).  Since pretty much every thing is now available as a FLAC download, it’s been a few months since I felt the urge to lift the dust over , clean the record, and settle in for a pop and click filled 18 minutes of music