Living with popping and crackling

Ditto what Dan_ed and Lugnut said...

The following cannot be over-emphasized: proper cleaning of vinyl is essential. This goes for used records of course, but in one sense it's even more important for new ones. If you don't clean a record before its first play, you will ruin it with its first play. Read the "Record-Playing Rituals" thread stickied at the top of the Analog forum page - 97 seperate opinions on how to do it best.

Better equipment, as Lugnut mentioned, will also contribute to quieter playback. As my rig has gotten better, so have my records! I listen mostly to classical, where noisy backgrounds are often revealed by a wide dynamic range. Yet I have many hundreds of records with absolutely jet black backgrounds. Visitors expecting the old pops and ticks are usually astonished.

Vinyl quality also varies from label to label. I've never heard a noisy harmonia mundi, nor a truly quiet Mercury. That doesn't keep me from enjoying the Mercuries however. If the music, performance and recording are right (as they often were on Mercury) then my ears quickly tune out most surface noise, user-inflicted damage excepted. Of course I still wish they were as quiet as those harmonia mundi's!

I find simple cleaning, manually, cleans most LPs up well. Buying used vinyl, at $1 to $10 a piece, I clean 'em and play 'em. If there's too much surface noise for my taste, I take 'em back and trade 'em in, getting about 50% of price paid. For me this works out OK, and you'd be amazed at how many clean $1 LPs I've bought since getting back into vinyl about 1.5 years ago. I wouldn't be intimidated by anyone who suggests that you'll need to spend 2 or 3 thousand dollars for satisfactory LP playback. My rig costs far less and has been satisfying me splendidly since I got back into vinyl. Enjoy.

Dougdeacon (you must like "king of Queens") how is a record damaged by not cleaning it first?

Oy! Doug is correct, there, Mr. Todd. By playing a new, uncleaned LP you risk driving pressing release agents and other manufacturing residue into the grooves, not to mention hauling them around the grooves with your stylus.

It is all in the cleaning and the equipment. That said there are some LP's that will make noise regardless, depending on the pressing, the vinyl, and past care (or lack thereof). This goes for both new and old records. I have 50 year old records which are dead quiet and 2004 releases that crackle - at least until I take them back for a refund.

makes sense