Brand new vinyl - what’s acceptable to you?

@audphile1 thanks for the tip - I’ll look into Craft Recordings and the Hummingguru.

@mattmiller - I too was surprised and disappointed at the lack of sparkle in the vinyl of Norah Jones. It’ll be going back, but they’ll want to send a replacement and I will be looking for something else.

The Miles Davis sounds quite good - other than some of the noise previously mentioned. Hopefully it will clean up. 

Most of what vinyl I have is classical, but I am looking forward to giving the new Supertramp Crime of the Century a spin. Good music that brings back memories. Oh, and The Who - Who’s Next.  Another guilty pleasure!

Like most, I clean all new vinyl before playing.  At today's prices, I will only accept perfection.  No pops, no clicks, nada.  Because of this, I only buy new vinyl from Amazon.  Their no questions return policy can't be beat. I don't even have to put a return in a box.  Just scan the QR code and drop it off at the closest outlet which in my case is a gas station 10 blocks from my house.  If the first copy is not perfect, I'll order a second.  Maybe even a third.  Never have this problem with a CD.  

@mgrif104 -- Get a HummingGuru Nova and you will be amazed how your vinyl sounds.  I don't think you will regret it one bit.

@dogberry If you are going to go to a two machine process you might want to consider using your Loricraft after your Degritter.  I base this suggestion on the research done by Neil Antinn where he found that there is more dissolved solids left on the cleaned record if it is air dried than if it is vacuum dried.  I played around with this when I bought my VPI MW-1 and HumminGuru.  I tried a number of regimes, using only distilled water, using surfactant and then a distilled water rinse, etc.  In the end I concluded that for new records my best result is US first using surfactant, with vacuum dry.  I also tried US w/surfactant, distilled rinse, then vacuum dry and found that as long as the surfactant (I use Tergitol 15-S-9 @ 0.5 ml/L distilled water) final rinse is immediately vacuumed dry that the pure distilled water rinse step is not necessary.  The most important thing I found, though, is to do the vacuum dry as a final step and eliminate the air dry altogether.  With your equipment you have the advantage to achieve this same superior result.  

@mgrif104 

With respect to the scratch on the Norah Jones album, when played is the scratch audible? Vinyl inevitably has visible surface features that when played are usually inaudible.

Sometimes for one reason or another during pressing, packaging etc., at the pressing plant the surface becomes contaminated with foreign matter that may or may not be audible. The patch of noise you hear a 1/4 way into the first track of your Miles Davis album may be just the case. A close visual inspection under good light, preferably on the turntable noting the position of the tonearm when you heard the noise may only require physically removing the offending foreign matter. I gently use my pinky nail followed with a pass from the edge of my silicon roller to remove leftover debris from the scraping. This often achieves complete silence after such a procedure and such is the nature of vinyl, perfect yet flawed!