As for snap crackle and pop. The vast majority of this is dirt! Get a decent dedicated record cleaner.
It will amaze you by the loss of noise on records that you listened to before you got the cleaner. Putting on a couple of drops of a cleaner and giving it a wipe on your turntable is no where near as good as with a dedicated machine. That likely only removes some dust. There are good models from under $100 (Spin clean is one) to more than your current buget. I tried three cleaners. First an Okki Nokki which lets you manually clean one side of one record a time and cleans and vacuums the record side. A very nice unit assuming you can tolerate cleaning one record side and take your time. I fond mine to just take time and does a fine job. I would redcommend this unit if you want a not outlandish priced unit that works well (but takes time). A second cheaper unit ( a spin clean brand) that you turn by hand and and clean one disk at a time with a brush while half the record is submerged in the soution. It is reasonable in price, likely under
Ultrasonic units cost from about $300 up and claim to be able to do more disks at the same time. I bought a cheap ultrasonic and got busy at home so have not really tried it with multiple records. Mine does slowyl turn (maybe 3 rev per minute) the record(s). High priced Ultrasonic units are great for a ton of records and filter the cleaning solution and some even raise the records to dry. You are into several Kilobucks for a real good one.
It will amaze you by the loss of noise on records that you listened to before you got the cleaner. Putting on a couple of drops of a cleaner and giving it a wipe on your turntable is no where near as good as with a dedicated machine. That likely only removes some dust. There are good models from under $100 (Spin clean is one) to more than your current buget. I tried three cleaners. First an Okki Nokki which lets you manually clean one side of one record a time and cleans and vacuums the record side. A very nice unit assuming you can tolerate cleaning one record side and take your time. I fond mine to just take time and does a fine job. I would redcommend this unit if you want a not outlandish priced unit that works well (but takes time). A second cheaper unit ( a spin clean brand) that you turn by hand and and clean one disk at a time with a brush while half the record is submerged in the soution. It is reasonable in price, likely under
Ultrasonic units cost from about $300 up and claim to be able to do more disks at the same time. I bought a cheap ultrasonic and got busy at home so have not really tried it with multiple records. Mine does slowyl turn (maybe 3 rev per minute) the record(s). High priced Ultrasonic units are great for a ton of records and filter the cleaning solution and some even raise the records to dry. You are into several Kilobucks for a real good one.