I never even thought about it. The turntable I have now was bought 30 years ago from some guy as part of a package of equipment he was selling so his wife couldn’t get it in the divorce. The Kenwood linear-tracking TT did not have a dust cover — he didn’t know what became of it; maybe he thought it was better to not have a cover at all? I just folded a pillow case in half and draped it over the turntable when not in use. I still do it that way and now rarely play records. I have a lot of records that endured many drunken parties and suffered from rough handling and spilt beer, though I did apply a Diskwasher prior to playing them, but a lot do not sound so good even after cleaning. I think it would have been more important for me to have someone responsible to handle and maintain my records instead of having the dust cover.
Ok guys
My question is this, nothing major, more of a curiosity. When playing an album does it make a difference if you leave the dust cover up or down? Probably stupid question but hey there are lots of opinions out there