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picture is worth a 1000 words....

Yes I always clean my new records. I've seen fingerprints, smudges, static can be bad so a wet cleaning eliminates the pops and cracks or use a zerostat gun, as you know static attracts a lot of dirt and dust, leftover residue from the factory. Keep your stylus clean. There are many reason why to clean new vinyl especially if you are doing critical listening. BTW most new albums are highly charged with static using a zerostat gun does a great job.

Been listening to this since I was in highschool.

Jim: There are lots of great audition tracks on the 2014 CarverSite Reference Disc. Here's a scan of the track list: And these are Marks notes for each track:

The Smithsonian uses the Pittsburgh built Spin-Clean on their collection. I have one. Try looking up 'Music to my Ears' their mother company produces the Spin-Clean and it's a great place to get your can fix. ray

Gerry Mulligan - Portrait.

I've got records that have been played hundreds of times (and not perfectly taken care of), that still sound fine and have more 'magic' than the re-mastered CD of the same album.

Definitely clean new records, second the need from r new sleeves, and yes magic in the grooves!

There is magic in the grooves.

Here are some pics of the turntable wall shelves I picked up on ebay. I think I paid $175 each. They do a great job, highly recommended. Solid, well made, filled with sand and easy to install. You have to buy a shelf. I picked up a 3/4" acrylic shelf off ebay and had them cut it to size. Perfect

I clean mine because you can have the mold release compound still on there, and you don't want that on your nice stylus, do you?

Good pressings make all the difference. I just purchased another pressing of Steely Dan Aja for $178 from Better Records. Better-records.com They focus on finding the absolute best sounding vinyl on the planet. I try to get a copy of all my favorites from them because the sound is significantly better. Very pricey but worth it. Pressings are so different from one to another. The temperature at which each was pressed, the engineer, the time of day, the beginning or end of a run, the press machine, was it remastered, did the boost the high end (common for Japanese pressings)... I have two first pressings of Kansas Point of no Return that sound completely different. I have three pressings of Srt. Peppers the 2014 parlaphone mono is by far the best pressing. Quality Record Pressings is another great source. Their Pressings are outstanding. If you read about how they do their pressings, you will want nothing but their pressings. Cat Steven's Tea for the Tillerman is outstanding. If you want to amaze with your Amazings, use good pressings.

I had a 69 GTO convertible I bought for $750 with 50k miles in 76. The guy couldn't stop getting tickets, no matter what color he kept changing it to. I left one patch in reverse, then four patches in gear changes when trying it out. Since there are many variables that result in a performance judgement, the variables for my studio playback system are specific to that system. A neutral non DSP pre-amp that does not have to tweak or influence any input or output or environment factors. No headphone or phono requirements. I have other systems for those. The classes of circuit families and their characteristics have been kicked around for many years. And now due to popular choices, are mostly being made in China. The C1 & C11 work for now, but shall be replaced with something like a Gen 2 Emotiva XSP-1. My custom system integration and major pro-audio sources say that these types of endeavors represent less than 2% of the consumer market. And now as we and our old components age, that percentage will not be increasing. Kind of like the old boat owner scenario of throwing time & money into the water, if you have the time and/or money. Get the wife's opinion on that, but be prepared to duck My fear with all the upgrade/refresh options, discussions and arguments, has been related to catching an "STD" (Stereophoniclly Transmitted Distortion) in my system! I do like simple uncomplicated boats. This is one of mine

New CD. It has been months since I bought any CD's.

Jim, I had this great strategic suggestion all typed, when the site went down last night..., The jist of it was... 1. Consider that the quality of your vinyl in your "showcase" should be in parity with the ~$40,000 worth of the latest technology you are presenting. 2. Russ and Chiro are dead on with the MoFi suggestion. I'll add SuperDisc, and there are others. 3. Avoid used, moldy, beat up garage-sale records that would appear to your audience as being orthogonal to your high-end objective. 4. I would pick "pressings" over "titles" - which will give you enough overlap. 5. A few dozen quality pressings from MoFi, or SuperDisc, or even some of the Japanese and European pressings are better than 250 titles of junky pressings covering every genre. 6. Your audience, with $40K in disposable cash will expect top-quality vinyl - and the new stuff is pretty impressive. 7. If you pick up a used be sure to get a cleaner (ultrasonic, or other) your new TT and cartridge needs that respect. I like the suggestion of two DiskWashers, one for cleaning, one for finishing, that someone said - I do that. FWIW, MoFi, Mobile Fidelity, started here in Chicago - look up the Wikipedia article. And, there's a weekend sale at their HQ every week (close to us! - bonus). They offer 20% to 30% off MoFi titles along with lots of high-end used stock. BTW, I'm not trying to be a vinyl snob - just thinking about what I believe you are setting up with the Showcase of this gear. Most, 98% or more of my vinyl, is used, beat-up jackets from garage sales and swap meets. There ARE bad repressings (MoFi and others...) the best advice is to plug into some vinyl groups, like the MoFi group on FaceBook. There's lots of opinion there, that can steer you away from lesser pressings that MoFi can't help. Some of these repressings are super valuable, and in limited editions. The recent release of Donald Fagan's Night Fly on 45rmp MoFi, has more than doubled in price in the aftermarket. I heard it at a friends, last Sunday night..., and it is absolutely stunning (played it on some tubed Audio Research gear, a Marantz TT through Klipsch K-horns - orders of magnitude better than the original pressing. One last thing there are a couple very good shops in Rockford, and the used market for recent MoFi pressings is pretty strong in our area of the midwest. A regular event - record swap at the Hillside Best Western is on for this Sunday, always is a good place to find near new Mofi.

I can't fault that! Well done Mike.

I would recommend a turntable wall stand. Check with the manufacturer but it isolates the turntable from the floor. If you happen to get resonance in the arm there are few things you do to stop it. Let me know. There are some wall shelves that someone makes and sells on eBay. They are a Rega style shelf filled with sand. I add an acrylic shelf with great results. I will post pics tomorrow

Thanks Chiro, I added some more to my prior post as well. DSOTM will cause my room to resonate, and that's what causes the TT arm to vibrate. It's not the table's fault in this case, it's room response and feedback to the arm/cartridge. If Jim's setup can handle it, by all means use DSOTM. I would use the original pressing, not the digitally remastered version for that one, or a MoFi pressing.

Unclemeat made some very good points. And I like his list of demo albums. Brilliant idea to get MoFi to donate some of their pressings. I would also do a little research and find out which pressings sound the best. Many of the remastered 180 gram pressings sound like crap. For instance, the first pressing of Pink Floyd The Wall crushes the 180 gram remastered newer pressing. I have both and they don't even sound like the same album. Some of my suggestions will tear up an average turntable. I had a Pro-ject table that couldn't handle any volume or heavy bass. (Sold it) A good turntable and a proper set up can easily handle DSOTM, David Gilmour or Bassnectar. I like them because of unexpected passes that are so dynamic and will knock people our of their seat. I can crank DSOTM to ear bleeding levels without turntable feedback. It will shake you at your very core. I had a guy wanting to hear my system about a month ago. He wanted to listen to a couple songs. Two hours later I couldn't get him to leave. The next day he invested in a $4000 turntable not including cartridge. Within a week he bought a new amp and speakers. He said it was Pink Floyd -(we played Animals, DSOTM and The Wall) and Supertramp (Crime of the Century, MoFi pressing) that did it.

Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab pressings. They don't have the surface noise because they use a higher grade vinyl and have better quality control. Since you are demoing a MoFi table you might ask them for some of their re-mastered vinyl recordings to demo with! I would not necessarily recommend Pink Floyd DSOTM to demo with. The heartbeat sound on the first track can be too intense and cause lots of problems with feedback to the TT. It's fine for normal listening but you don't want it to turn a customer off to vinyl. If your customer is into vinyl then let them play it if they bring it of course. There are some recordings I'll suggest that are not at all mainstream, and they might not be anyone's cup of tea for music an general; but they have some incredible 'wow' factor when played on a good TT/cartridge. Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back Soundtrack Cabaret - Original Soundtrack 1972 Fleetwood Mac - Tusk - Particularly Side 4 Blondie - The Best of Blondie Earl Klugh - Finger Paintings (MFSL) Crosby Stills & Nash - CSN Van Morrison - Moondance Pink Floyd - Meddle Frank Zappa - We're only in it for the Money Police - Outlandos D'Amour Good record cleaner - Discwasher D4, D4 fluid (don't ever use VinylStyl it leaves residue). I use two, one for initial cleaning of dirty record/wet, and a second one to finish and help pick up the last bit of dust as it finishes drying. I only suggest vintage pressings. The new ones have quality issues except any MoFi releases. Diskeeper ultimate audiophile sleeves are a must to keep the recordings clean. You might need to play/clean a record with surface noise several times to get rid of any dust in the grooves, don't ruin that by putting them back into paper sleeves. Discogs.com is a good place to look for vinyl; it's a bit more expensive but you can probably track down NM recordings more easily with so many vendors. If I buy via discogs I usually make a few picks from the seller and make a package offer if they are open to negotiation, and it helps reduce shipping cost per-record. If you want me to look for anything here there are several stores with lots of inventory, PM me a list.

I second: Steely Dan Aja and Dire Straits Brothers in Arms Billy Thorpe - Children of the Sun (opening song has fantastic imaging) Bassnectar - if you want show off bass but your turntable better be isolated Nora Jones -Come Away with Me Diana Krall - Love Scenes David Gilmour - Rattle that Lock

Here a few of my favorites that haven't been mentioned: Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um (Columbia CK65512) [very well recorded post-bop jazz] Gustav Holst - The Planets by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Charles Dutoit conducting (Decca or London) [impossible dynamics!] Arne Domnérus ‎– Jazz At The Pawnshop (Proprius PROP 7778-79, 2 LPs) [a live recording that puts you in the audience] Lincoln Mayorga and Distinguished Colleagues Volume 3 (Sheffield Labs, Lab 1) [you feel like you are in the studio] Thelma Houston and Pressure Cooker - I've Got The Music In Me (Sheffield Labs, Lab 2) [incredible dynamic range] Virgil Fox - The Fox Touch (Crystal Clear Records CCS-7001) [direct to disc recording of organ music with incredible bass]

Steely Dan - Aja The Doobie Brothers - What Were Once Vices... Heart - Dreamboat Annie George Benson - Breezin'

Spyrogyra - Morning Dance Warren Haynes - Ashes to Ashes Richard Tee (will be very difficult to find) Herbie Hancock - Head Hunters

Ricky Lee Jones. ?

Floyd - DSoTM Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms Holst - Planets Eva Cassidy, Norah Jones, Duke Ellington - may be a bit difficult to find though.