My new record acquisition regimen
 

I'm doing a cleaning session on a backlog of 45s I bought during the pandemic and figured I'd share my routine of new acquisitions.

New or used, records go into the KLaudio, generally a 3 minute wash and 3 minute dry cycle. If they're older records I may crank the wash cycle up to 4 minutes, but I don't buy beat up records so that's a little rare but a longer cycle helps with 50+ year old vinyl.

For 7"s I use Sleeve City's standard 7" poly lined inner sleeves, if the record was bought in a plain white sleeve that's the full treatment it gets. If it came with an original label sleeve or pic sleeve it goes into a Sleeve City 2.5mil outer. I've got some samples of their Diskeeper inners but haven't ordered any yet.

For 10"s they go into Diskeeper Ultimate Audiophile inners and whatever generic outers I picked up from a record store.

And lastly 12"s go into MoFi inners and either the Sleeve City 2.5 mil outers or the 5.0 mil gatefold outers.

I generally try to add anything new into my Discogs collection as well, but sometimes if a record has had 75 pressings I just give up as it can be a hassle.

I'm interested to hear what others do with new acquisitions. :music:

Degritter Medium cleaning for most vinyls, except new ones get a short Quick clean and the very dirty ones from the flea market get the longer Heavy one.

I usually also manually clean the sleeves when the LPs are not new. And I keep the wrap on new records. Then MoFi Inner and Outer Sleeves, no exception. I fold them the Japanese way, I like their logic.

Finally a nice listen to the album. While listening I update my Discogs collection as well as my Excel spreadsheet. And off to the Ikea Kallax shelves... until next time!

All albums get cleaned in the Audio Desk cleaner, then get treated with Last Record Preservative (been using this for more years than I can remember). If they came in paper or cardboard inner sleeves, they go in a Mobile Fidelity inner sleeve and then get put back in their jacket. I don't use any outer poly sleeves and all cellophane comes off the jacket - I know my collection of ~1,100 is small by some standards, but storage space is at a premium and at my age life is too short to worry about keeping the jacket pristine[emoji16].

I add all albums to my CLZ Music cataloging software.

I keep the shrink on most of my albums, gatefolds excluded. If I run into something older where the shrink is starting to, well, shrink too much and warp the jacket I'll remove it. I cut out the hype stickers and put them into the jacket.

???

Good idea.

I limp by with my lowly HW 16.5. I do recomment the MOFI sleeves. I do need to upgrade to a good ultrasonic system though. Standing there and cleaning a group of records on the VPI is hell on my lower back. :tears:

Still, it's gratifying to see the quality of the new vinyl is so vastly superior to the stuff from the mid '70's and 80's.

I had visions of a VPI Cyclone at one point, but I'm not playing records much, so I think I'll stick with my 16.5. Still going strong.

That said, I've begun to buy records again, despite having played very few in the last few years. Yesterday there was a guy selling records in a small park near my building. On impulse, I stopped and ended up with a sealed copy of Riding with the King and an old Georgia Gibbs LP, Swingin' with Her Nibs. The GG album will get cleaned, put in a Discwasher V.R.P. or Mofi sleeve and the jacket into a sleeve as well. The Clapton/BB King LP (didn't know it was 2LPs) will get the same treatment when I get around to playing it. For now it stays shrink-wrapped. The shrink wrap does have one torn corner, but I'm not concerned. The GG album has no sleeve, so it gets dealt with first.

To say nothing of your ears (kept my HW 16.5 for about 2-wks before giving up on the noise).

Nothing quiet about that machine Glenn. Everyone in the house knows what you're up to. :yes: