How to Judge an LP

Not much need to add to Twl's excellent rundown (though I wouldn't take Pbb to task quite so hard for his basically complimentary and reasonable response - his point of view is not maybe the same as all of ours, but it doesn't strike me as being an attack or off the wall). I routinely enjoy records, especially 45's, with flaws and noise levels that would scare off most audiophiles for sure, but then again they probably wouldn't be listening to some of the kinds of music involved in the first place. However, when it comes to classical, it's got to about perfect or nothing at all for me. Some further tips: scratches that run more or less in the direction of the grooves will usually be more problematic than radial ones as far as causing skips goes; mono records can have their surface noise decreased by monoing the signal; an opaquely filmy-looking surface often indicates heat damage even without the presence of warping and will cause constant background hiss despite cleaning; be more picky the tinier the groove size is and more tolerant with a larger groove; beware a 'ragged'- or slightly whitish-looking groove which ususally indicates past mistracking even without scratches present; don't be automatically dissuaded by the presence of deceptively abundant fingerprints, dust, or even mildew on desirable records that don't show other obvious wear beyond scuff-marks, as these will often clean up quite nicely. Happy hunting!

Narkspud is correct about styrene records, but I would point out that these only represent a very tiny minority of pressings overall, even with 45's. They also usually feature a pretty diagnostic 'squared-off' edge, and avoid clamping them, as they will crack more easily than bend, unlike most PVC.