Automatic Cueing and Automatic Return

Idon't think the stylus rubs against the label, does it?
I have heard it's not that bad for it as the end of the record is smooth, dead space so to speak.

If I am wrong, I would like to know, as I doze off into the same musical bliss often. I am wary of playing LPs late at night for this same reason.

It would seem there must be a way to at least have auto lift at the end, without affecting the sound. The old AT6006(?) tonearm lift worked pretty well and I can't imagine how it could have affected the sound negatively. Can't be that hard to incorporate something like that in most turntables.

Drives me crazy that most tables do not have a simple way to automatically lift the arm at records end!

I put a $15 surface mount auto arm lift gadget from Thorens on my Linn manual table when I bought it over 20 years ago and it works every time (see it in the photo of the Linn on my system page).

Not sure what gadgets like it might be available these days but it is more than worth its weight in gold!

Stylus = diamond
Label = paper
Its the label that would have the potential to be damaged, IMO. Of course, you will have to more careful in cleaning the stylus; do a search on magic eraser in the forums and you will be all set. A near life-time supply of magic eraser is on-sale now at home depot for about $3!!!

:-)

In a sufficiently resolving system, EVERYTHING is audible, including extra doo-dads attached to the plinth or (especially) the tonearm. I've removed various unneeded bits from my TriPlanar arm because its sound floor is lower without them.

Whether any particular doo-dad would audibly affect the sound on some other rig depends on the rig and the whole system, so YMMV.