Very cool. I have just gotten into vinyl again and I am amazed at the imaging and overall sound quality that you can get with a clean record, when compared to the CD counterpart. So my advice is based on limited experience, but what I am doing, based on advice here and other readings around the web is to deep clean the record once, then use a carbon fiber brush over it before I play it, and place the record in an antistatic sleeve for storage. I also bought some outer covers for the album jacket, mainly because I am anal, but I believe that it will help keep dust as far away from the vinyl as possible and preserve the jacket for me.
As for whether you need a record cleaning machine or not, that is a tough call. I was using the D4 kit to begin with and found an amazing deal on a new Nitty Gritty cleaning machine on craigslist and jumped on it. On new or rarely played vinyl, I am not sure I hear much of a difference when I take a disc that I had cleaned with the D4 kit and listened, then used the nitty gritty. But on stuff that has seen some use, but still in great shape, it does sound a bit smoother to me to have a cleaned and vacuumed record. The other thing is visually, there is a difference in my view when I look at a record that has been cleaned with the machine, it just looks cleaner, than when I do it with the D4 kit. But as I told Chris last night, who knows I may be imagining it. But even if I am, I can still get behind the theory behind cleaned vinyl, which is a great argument to me.
As for setup, it was pretty easy for me, but I have a different table, so I don’t know…I am sure someone else will chime in here…
And the best thing is you can walk in a record shop and walk out with 30 records for $60, and walk out with stuff that has never made it to CD!
Enjoy!