Vinyl cleanliness

Bad quality vinyl will pop and click brand new even if cleaned with an RCM. It's because the vinyl itself is contaminated and there is nothing you can do to remove what's embedded in the pressing. I do have many albums that sound incredibly quiet, however, so it is possible. Most surface noise probably comes from damage done by incorrect set-up or simple carelessness. Part of the hobby, if you ask me, and well worth it.

Almost all of the new albums I buy (acoustic sounds reissues, etc) have been absolutely dead quiet. The old stuff that I originally bought and took care of (over 40 years) - no ticks and pops (or very few) but some surface noise. Others given to me by friends who never took care of them - very, very noisey no matter how well cleaned.

My new vinyl records, even after 10 - 20 plays - are as quiet as digital. My surface noise on older ones and everything else in general was greatly reduced and on the new discs totally eliminated when I received the VPI Periphery Ring.

Several of my older Deutsche Grammophone records that I bought in the 70s are defect free and still very quiet after all these years. Only one or two in my rock collection could I say are defect free.

Most of my albums are very quiet as well, with very few to no pops and ticks. (There will be some low level noise between tracks, but that is to be expected.)

One thing you can do to alleviate that problem is to wet clean your records and vacuum them dry before you play them, and that includes the brand new ones. Then use a carbon fiber brush before every play to get rid of any stray dust. This will keep your records from quickly accumulating pops and ticks. (However, nothing will keep them pristine forever, so the occasional pop and tick is to be expected and lived with, as that is just the nature of the beast.)

My two cents worth.