Tips on Buying Quiet Quality sounding LP's

Dev,

Effective cleaning before the LP's first play is indeed essential, both for best/quietest sound and for the longevity of the LP, whether new or used.

The stylus of a phono cartridge, depending on the model, may have a contact radius as small as 3-4 microns. As the groove spins along the stylus is deflected by obstacles too small to see without an electron microscope. The cartridge doesn't know whether any particular deflection was caused by a groove modulation ("music") or some speck of crud ("noise"), it generates a signal regardless. Quiet backgrounds require eliminating those specks of crud.

Non-solid contaminates like pressing mold release agents or lubricants like Gruv Glide also degrade the signal. They may make the background quieter by lubricating some of the microscopic specks, but it's a false quiet because that lubrication also prevents the stylus from seeing small groove modulations. Assuming a sufficiently resolving system, the sonic result is an attenuation of HF's (modulations of small wavelength) and low level details (modulations of small amplitude). Accurate reproduction of everything cut into the groove requires the removal of everything between stylus and vinyl before you play.

Regarding LP longevity, as Jaybo mentioned it takes an effort. Always remember that you're sliding a microscopic plastic groove beneath an extremely sharp diamond - under pressure. Any hard particulates will be scraped between plastic and diamond. Care to guess which surface loses? (Actually the answer is "both", but that's another topic.)

Play a dirty record even once and you've surely damaged it. The only question is, "How much damage and is my system good enough to detect it?"

The only thing I'd add to Doug's very nice description is that most people over 40 (a lot of people with large record collections these days) or so cannot hear the very high frequency on records anymore (above 12-14 khz or so I believe) in that we all lose that ability to some extent as our ears age. So the ear increasingly becomes a less reliable tool for determining the absolute quality of a record. if you do not believe me, play a test tone record or CD or do some other equivalent test of ability to hear different frequencies and see (hear) for yourself.

The good news is if you can't hear it, it may not matter if a record is in 100% perfect condition anymore. It will still likely sound very good!

Bummer.

I'm 55 and my ears still detect test tones to at least 15kHz. Paul's go significantly higher. Of course he hangs around by his toes and only flies out after dark.

Just how long do we have to wait before our records start sounding better, dammit?! LOL

I am 50 and have the same test record I had when I was 19 and it has only been played a few times since.

My system is totally different now than then, but way better in most every regard (I think).

At 19, I recall being able to hear everything up to the 20Khz test tone.

Last I tried about a year ago, I could only detect up to about 14khz or so as I recall. Absolutely nothing above that!

However, I am enjoying music on my system more than ever these days and I know my current system is leaps and bounds beyond what I had then.

So whether a blessing or a curse it is what it is?

There is an IMAX film on the human body that illustrates what happens to most all inside our ears over time in large screen high res format. Its analogous to what was described above regarding what the diamond stylus and dirt does to that plastic record. Is that ironic or what? Maybe there truly is a GOd that helps keep man's affairs, including vinyl listening parameters, in order!

In my experience, buying new LP's is an expensive risk. Sadly, the sound quality of at least 50% of new LP's I have purchased is simply awful. One example is Ray Brown's Soular Energy, on the Pure label with two "pretty" red LP's, is simply unlistenable with burned out highs. $50 wasted!!!

So my tip? Follow all the valuable advice already posted here and then hope for the best.

And, be sure to understand the return policy of your dealer.