Living with popping and crackling

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

Improper cart. loading can highlight surface noise. Check out Bob Hagerman's paper on his web site that addresses this issue. A MM cart. with too much shunt capacitance loading it will have a high freq. resonance. Ultrasonic noise pulses can excite this resonance and be shifted down to audio band where they can be heard. Similar things can happen to a MC cart. with too much resistive loading. Also, in my experience incorrect VTA can also highlight surface noise. One other point; during the oil crisis in the 1970s, many record companies upped the content of recycled vinyl in their product to save money. Recycled vinyl IS noisy and all the cleaning in the world won't cure it.

Oy veh! 4yanx beat me to it.

If you don't believe it Todd, I'll lend you the two Classic Records and one Speakers Corner I dared to play a few times without cleaning them first. These were ripped-open-the-plastic-myself brand spankin' new. The first couple of plays were pretty quiet but the ole snap, crackle and pop got a little worse each time. Maybe 6 plays each at most. I figured no harm, I'll wash them when I get my RCM.

No dice. The mold release chemicals or whatever else the manufacturer left ON that vinyl is now IN that vinyl, ground in by the stylus. Multiple cleanings on my Loricraft stopped the damage from getting any worse, but nothing will undo it. $100 worth of records are toast.

Be warned or be sorry. Better yet, read the thread I referenced above. I may be crazy, but 95 or so other crazies posted various versions of the same idea (4yanx was about the craziest of them all BTW!)

Crazy like a , well, like a crazy person! :-)