What is the first thing you do when you unwrap a new vinyl record?

You won't regret it, though many of us use a vacuum machine of some sort before the U/S. But anything is better than nothing when it comes to cleaning records.

Seems to me, I'd better invest in an ultrasonic cleaning machine.  Thoughts, anyone?

I return it for the same title on CD so I don't have to jump through all the hoops described above.

Peel off the hype sticker, if there is one, and apply it to an outer sleeve.

Open and inspect.

Clean in the ultrasonic machine and add the album to Discogs while doing so.

When dry, play the album and check out the artwork.

When done, place in a rice paper inner sleeve if needed.

Inspect, clean, PLAY.

Inspect, clean, resleeve 

@willyht Thanks!

Clean it.

@signaforce Sure. Here are a few of my favorites:

Curtis Amy and Dupree Bolton/Katanga

Andrew Hill/Black Fire

Andrew Hill/Dance with Death

Carmell Jones/The Remarkable Carmell Jones

Dexter Gordon/One Flight Up

Donald Byrd/Chant

Andrew Hill Passing Ships

Btw, I have many more than these, and they all have redeeming qualities. They are beautifully packaged, and fun to own. Andrew Hill was a pleasant discovery for me---- I also recommend Smokestack and Point of Departure which are part of the Blue Note Classic series. 

If paper, change out the liner to a MoFi sleeve, clean it with ultrasonic, then play.
 

 @willyht and others.

Question, I am a fledgling jazz listener, so know & have Miles, Herbie, Cannonball, etc, most from the standard Blue Note. I don’t recognize most of the Tone Poets artists, but would like to begin to enjoy their fidelity. Any top albums you would recommend to start? Thanks 

I throw the wrapper in the trash.

@richardbrand ....yes, I recall something to that effect....Parastat may be a name similar to a solution that I spray applied to a couple of Mobil Fidelity LP’s back when.....It sounded as if the content of the cuts became ’silken’ and damped out some hf detail....mho, of course.....
I used it on 3~4 albums, then stopped.
Ought to dig them out and hit replay.....

Provisional answer to my own follow-up question - I think the P sticker might come from Cecil E Watts manual record cleaning system, the Manual Parastat.  It would have been all I could afford at the time.  There's a manual on vinylengine but I am not a member and new memberships are disabled ...

Clean it (Degritter Mk II, DW only), give it a fresh inner sleeve and a 5mil outer sleeve (for single/gatefold LPs), then I play it, and within a few days I catalog it.

I carefully cut plastic wrap at the access side and tape plastic wrap over the edges to inner side of the album jacket, so album will stay in its original wrapping but the disc is actually reachable. It’s actually helps to preserve album jacket for long time and keep nice fresh look of the album over the years. 

All my old records have a small round sticker with a red letter "P" stuck on the side 1 label.  I can remember that it was an anti-static treatment - maybe "Parastat" or similar - but I can't remember how I applied it or anything else about it!

Anybody else remember something like this?

New records can be so dirty! The crap stiff paper sleeves are horrible! 

Usually, unwrap, give it a good cleaning, use a good inner and outer sleeve. 

Clean records always sounds better!! Plus a clean record doesn't have static. The needle doesn't need as much cleaning. 

I have moved several times over the past couple decades and am now able to sit back and unbox the vast LP collection I have amassed.  When I was just starting out (in the 60's, no less) I had a GE fold-out stereo for a number of years that then morphed into a used Thorens TT with, no kidding, idler drive. By the late 70's I had a nicer Thorens, then a SOTA, then an Immedia, and now a Technics SL-1200G. Why am I going down this list?  Because I am opening up LP's I haven't played in 50 years, which were played on those old units and well before anyone had a RCM  or a Degritter like I do now.  I started using a Dishwasher brush maybe around 1980 or so, and somewhere back then, before that actually, I buffed on some sort of groove-glide stuff, but I didn't have my VPI 16.5 until the mid-80's.  Those  records from back then, now seeing the light of day (I would scribble the month/year I cleaned them on the inner sleeve) now sound like new LP's.  That's before cleaning them again!  If I do clean them they sound like CD's, insofar as surface noise goes.  I can't tell you how shocked I am at this.  My early record care manly involved in careful handling of them and making sure the inner sleeves were oriented.  Nothing special.  Now I can get something from Discogs that sounds like it should be thrown away.  A run through my new Record Doctor X (why didn't anyone make something like this years ago???) can do remarkable things (my VPI's vacuum motor died after 40 years) and then a distilled--water journey through the Degritter makes the former throw-out into something to treasure.  I do this with all my new stuff now.  Why not?  My digital setup is great (usually) but the vinyl is pure magic for reasons I can't really fathom.  The main thing is that I have always treated those items carefully, but, honestly, not really obsessively until now.  You don't have to be crazy about it.  One more vote here for that Record Doctor X......

Back in the day, I would record it on my R2R and then put it away.

@noromance On 1st play, I look for those tiny hairs being curled up from the stylus.

Passing that, I consider the age of the LP in my hands, a few of which are 50+ and deserve to have their foibles...

I did consider posting a sign next to the TT:

"If you're F'd up already, don't make me negatively add to the condition."

It was the rare soul who'd consider attempting to deal with a tangential arm anyway...too alien, too weird....*L*

I just hit it with the AQ dust and static (using myself as the static ground) brush and listen to it. I recently bought the re-mixed Band Stage Fright album (just the vinyl, not the box set pile) and it sounds amazingly clean and excellent...my original version has been played a zillion times so there's that but the new one is some amazing vinyl.

Sounds hellish.

Then I listen for pops and clicks and skips. Then a few days later, I listen to the music.

@richardbrand I used to have sky-high blood pressure, now it can't power an airtag...

@grislybutter Ha, so how do you power the chip on your shoulder?  Blood-static pressure?

@richardbrand  that's the problem, it's run on vampire dreams! I can't get rid of them

I open it and play it while looking at the album art and lyrics.

I never unwrap new records. They're worth a lot more in sealed condition.

I zap it with my Zerostat then clean it on my Nitty Gritty RCM--first using the MoFi Super Deep Cleaner and then their regular record wash.  I apply the cleaners by placing the LP on a rubber record mat in its shipping box, so there is a solid surface against which I can apply the pressure of the record-cleaning brushes. Then I place the LP back on the rubber mat and apply LAST preservative.  It is often necessary to clean the LP again (with a dry carbon-fiber brush) after placing it on the turntable, as dust will have landed on it.  After listening to the record I add it to my collection on Discogs if I'm going to keep it. I usually place the LP in a new inner sleeve, especially if it came in a paper or cheap poly sleeve.

This procedure, along with using the Zerostat and the dry brush before each play, has worked to keep my LPs in near-mint condition over decades of play.

I lookup the record ID on discogs, add it to my collection. Get a protective sleeve for the cover and then play it ! 

as with others here, I clean it in my US RCM and put it in a rice sleeve, if it was not supplied with one. Then I listen for pops and clicks and skips. Then a few days later, I listen to the music.

Definitely clean it via ultrasonic first and most importantly, catalog it, listen to it in full, and write down my impressions of it in the catalog, about the sound quality, pressing quality and music quality. With over 2k vinyl, it is a critical aspect of what to choose to play next. 

@asvjerry brand new records can have a significant amount of mold release agent on them that can cause surface noise. Always better to clean them before playing. YMMV. 

I generally look at the surface of the vinyl to ensure it has no bad scratches or isn't warped. Eventually I clean them with a vacuum machine, destat them, and finally play. I'd love to have a Degritter or similar, but I can't justify the expense since I'm spending more on streaming these days than on LPs. Sometimes I'll place the LP on my turntable to ensure the center hole isn't too tight. A few LPs had that issue over the years. 

@grislybutter

"... new records all have GPS and a chip in them that would track my listening habits"

Powered by what exactly?

Remember to handle it properly and not drop it.... ;)

Kidding.....destat and play.  If it wasn't clean already, what's the point of buying new vinyl?

I clean it on my ClearAudio Smart Matrix record cleaner with Audio Intelligence record cleaner, followed by store bought distilled water.  Then I play it.

I would return it, new records all have GPS and a chip in them that would track my listening habits.

Goes into the Degritter first then a clean inner sleeve.  Add it to my discogs collection list then to the “to be played” que…

Play it—unless it’s warped, in which case I clean, flatten, and then play it.

Follow up:

Just after posting my response, FedEx came up the driveway with a Blue Note Tone Poet--Freddie Roach/Good Move. Nice!

Once I remove the shrink-wrap, I put the jacket into either a single or gatefold liner, put the disc into the Degritter for a quick wash/rinse, replace the sleeve with a Big Fudge sleeve if it's a cheapie, and remove static from the sleeve with the Destat.

Just play it.

Inspect it, clean on my cleaning machine, treat with Last Treatment. Put it in plastic sleeve and put a small adhesive dot on it with the year purchased, and attach LAST sticker. Then play it and enter it into my database.

I give it a 6-minute cycle in my DeGritter with distilled water. 

Cleaned, placed in a new inner sleeve, then carried off to the turntable. Latest was Rick Wakeman's 2014 re-recording of JTTCOTE.

Clean with GrooveWasher and put in sleeve.

First I inspect it to make sure it isn't dished, warped or defective in any way.

Next, I zap it with my Zerostat and clean it on my Diskwasher (manually).

Finally, I play it and listen for any faults.

I've learned to perform this ritual within a week or two after purchase and return it if warranted.

 Ordinarily each record I receive, whether new or used, gets cleaned on my RCM and then played.