Vinyl maintenance?

[tenuous]

Apart from a few DJ friends, I have had a very limited exposure to the world of vinyl. The amount of rare, cheap, and supposedly great sounding material availiable has sparked my interest in a big way.

My question is this: what kind of maintenance do records and turntables require? Additionally how easy is it to permanantly damage a record? I wouldn't mind cleaning a record, but I couldn't bear to track down and buy that rare Beatles or Stones pressing if I knew that after a few (dozen, hundred, thousand?) playings it would be rendered unlistenable.

Thanks!

[Sckott]

Hmm, let's do the nutshell approach.

Let your ears be your guide. If you take very good care of vinyl, you'll rarely notice wear at all. It all goes down to "good stuff" down the line. Good TT, good cart, good care and good listening. Start off small and interesting, work your way up.

I've only worn out one record in my entire life. That was when I was 10. "Another One Bites The Dust" by Queen, an Electra Single, but I was using quite a heavy ceramic cart on a CHEEP *** TT. If you used math on just how many pounds per square inch of pressure, plus how many times I played the damn thing, you could flatten a penny into a silver-dollar size. The single stayed up to possibly 120 abusive plays this way until it became grey-grooved and started to hiss.

[tenuous]

Thanks Sckott, I think I just needed that last little question to push me off the cliff. Turntable shopping I go!