Brand new vinyl - what’s acceptable to you?

Any (new to me) record goes through my Degritter II. 

I’ll accept more than most. Being an imperfect medium with variance is part of its charm. Vinyl LP records today (70+ years later) still deliver on their original promise: "high quality for the masses". Guys who insist on returning records until "perfect" are just driving up costs for the rest of us. This is one of those generational differences I guess (I’m late gen X / millenial). It especially drives me crazy when guys talk about retuning for minor edge warps. It happens on 180g - just buy something else!!

Also, if you’re going to be so picky, at least learn the pressing plant differences. A United pressing is generally going to be filthy compared to a Music on Vinyl. Generational differences!

@lalitk 

the version of Norah Jones I purchased was the Blue Note 20th anniversary remaster on 180g vinyl. In between the scratch, it’s quiet, but also lacking life. I should have been skeptical about the remaster. It’s often not an improvement. I’ll look for the AP version. Thanks for the tip!

I’m currently only using a stylus brush but a few days ago ordered the zero dust stylus cleaner. Should be here in a day or so. 

Nothing gets played on my now not so new TT without going through my USC first.  I would return any record purchased new that had any objectionable defects or was poorly recorded.  I'm also rather judicious about where and from whom I purchase new records from.  The source and the manufacturing process matters.

@mulveling Well said!  FWIW, I buy a lot of records every year both new and used. Not including an estate record collection (~8,000) acquired last year, probably an average of 10-12 new records a month.  In the past 5 years I can only recall one instance when I had to return a record as unacceptable.  Perhaps you are correct and our expectations are lower.  The records we are getting now are generally much, much better than the ones available when I bought my first records in 1960. I still have those records too, and all the ones bought between then and now.  Oh yes there is a difference and yes I can still hear it.

@dogberry FWIW, I get around the full platter contamination problem on my VPI, basically the same issue you describe on your Loricraft, by using a microfibre cloth to wipe it off as I turn each record over.  It is a minor issue anyway.  For the benefit of others who might not know about these machines I offer the following.   Another potential issue that you don’t have on the Loricraft is the potential for contamination on the surface of the record by the vacuum pickup tube during vacuuming.  The Loricraft (and Monks) machines use a string that continuously passes between the the pickup tube and the record surface to prevent contamination.  VPI uses felt lips that come in continuous contact with the record that pick up both the fluid and suspended debris off the records surface during drying.  In consequence the VPI lips do get contaminated.  The trade off is that the Loricraft is slower, but inherently cleaner.  The solution for VPI users is a dedicated tooth brush or similar, which should be used after vacuum pickup on each side of each record.