New LP with pops + crackle, What is expected?

I think that it's just part of the game. If you want quiet, get CDs. Too bad that we don't have something that combines the strengths of the two formats and has a large catalog as well. If you want to stick with LP, make sure that you clean them before playing to remove the mold release agents and any debris that is a side effect of the manufacturing process.

Viridian
I will buy the anti static gun and will try cleaning it on my Acoustat cleaner. But after all that should I except it with pops and crackles? This is a "master recording". What does that mean? Why did my much less expensive lp produce such a distortionless sound?

I like the good old quiet vinyl♫

I have never came across a new record that was so noisy that it was not listenable. On the other hand, like mentioned above, I clean them extensively before use. Unfortunately cracking that new record open for the first time just to look at a record that is pressed off center and scratch more than most of my used stuff has happened a number of times. In this case I usually return the item to acoustic sounds without even putting it on the table. Try to find reviews on the actual LP your trying to buy. Although pressings are not exactly consistent, I have found a number of good or bad reviews on a product most of the time will be quiet accurate.

Darren

A "master recording" means that the source for the LP is the original master tape. It is common for record companies to use safety masters, which are copies made from the master, or other copies, which are ,at the minimum, one generation away from the master, as source material. Interestingly, there are many records where the masters have vanished completely, or degraded to the point where they are unusable, and only dupes exist. I recently bought a Chet Baker set, where no tapes could be located at all for one of the albums, and that album is taken from a record that has been played back. So you can actually hear the ticks and pops of the record that they used as source material. I think that I have some Django Reinhart discs like this as well.