Brand new vinyl - what’s acceptable to you?


I just ordered a dozen new albums - this time all 180 g variants. The Norah Jones had a scratch on it coming out of the paper sleeve the first time. (Separate gripe - why do they package ostensibly “audiophile” albums in crappy sleeves which might actually damage a record?).  I’ll return the Norah Jones. But, the Miles Davis album has a noisy spot 1/4 the way through the first track. I’ll try cleaning the record but usually don’t have to for a new album. Or should I as a better practice? (This old dog can learn new habits).

Fortunately, the Pat Metheny is dead quiet - thank you ECM! All my ECM vinyl - even from decades ago are quiet. However, my experience is that ECM is very much an outlier: that most labels will come with some noise.

I’m working my way through all the albums but it made me want to poll the group: How much noise do you accept on a new pressing?  Do you have a rule of thumb for what to reject?

Thanks,

 

mgrif104

Perhaps vinyl is 'outrageously priced' if you just look at the number amount it is, but in 1967 I was regularly buying albums for $5 ($4 if I'd wanted mono) at record shops and department stores. That is about $48.50 in today's dollars. 

Not “going into” things too much (reference a few posts back)

A 70k system is not the end all of all debates that we could all be “going into”

If the 70k of equipment is not carefully matched, l would expect everything that is “going into” it will possibly not all end up sounding like 70k.….. 

@larsman 

"Perhaps vinyl is 'outrageously priced' if you just look at the number amount it is, but in 1967 I was regularly buying albums for $5 ($4 if I'd wanted mono) at record shops and department stores. That is about $48.50 in today's dollars."

Yup!yes