Is it necessary to clean every record?

That is part and parcel of the great world of vinyl. Why forego such a treat. Even the dirt that you don't see can affect the record. Firstly, it may not sound right, secondly, you can damage the record permanently by having the stylus go trough miles of crud. You have the machine so why not use it. Call it work. Call it a ritual. Just do it. Have cds spoiled you or what?

It is only necessary if you would like to maintain optimum performance and reproduction with minimal wear and tear on the vinyl and stylus for more than one play. Sean
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PS... Repeat this mantra :

Clean the record, play the record. Clean the record, play the record. Clean the record, play the record......

Dear Easy E,
Sean is absolutely correct, "as usual". Clean & Play. I might add that jphilips method of nitty gritty followed by Gruv Glide has worked extremely well.

I belong to an informal group of music/hifi buffs, between us we have 25,000 records. We all use a VPI or Nitty Gritty followed by a treatment of Gruv Glide. The improvement in sound quality is noticeable.

I am a lazy one. I mostly have new records or they are in excellent condition.
But I agree with all above. I clean now more and more my records with my VPI, even brand new ones. There is definetly a difference before that and after that. I hate the noise of the VPI but the result is definetly excellent after doing it.
I use a special cleaning fluid from Switzerland, Audiotop. the price makes my eyes wet, but this stuff makes wonders. When I wouldn't have it here, I would not believe it. Vinyl is amazing, when do all right.

I tend to be as lazy as I possibly can. However I practice meticulously Sean's mantra, while every record I wish to play, spins in the cleaning machine.