Ok guys

I'm a SOTA owner and I'm with mijostyn.  The machinery sounds better with the dust cover down.  And I'm a happy camper that the preferred dust cover position keeps the LP cleaner.  It's only when I'm spinning 7 inch 45's that I have the cover up.  My 45's are often in terrible shape, and the lead-out grooves are usually so noisy I can't bear the din a second more than necessary.

Mc, silly you clean the brush off between plays. Once in a blue moon I'll clean the brush with alcohol. It won't smear anything and it will keep any incidental dust away from the stylus. The sweep arm is only 20 bucks. Spend some money and experiment a bit. Who knows. You might actually like it. 1++ edcyn! 

Neither up nor down. Off when playing records, on when not playing records.

It does appear that only the users of suspended tables like the SOTA are fully in the camp of dust cover on and down.

I guess I have to say yes and no... Lol.

The lift off cover on my Garrard 401 is only on while not being used to play records so definitely off on that one.

My Technics SL-10 being a linear tracker has to have the cover down and closed to even play so .....

Back in the day, I discovered that my LP12 sounded a lot better with no dust cover. I was in the listening chair when a friend lifted the lid while music was playing. With it on, the music and soundstage sounded literally closed in. So it was a ritual to take it off and slot it back in when finished. Now I never even consider using a cover when playing.