I've cleaned a couple records and the difference is amazing. One in particular that I have a half million miles on, "Coltrane's Sound" really came back to life. There are still some ticks and pops, from ground in dirt that did not get cleaned, and some from damage from being played by an impatient child 25 years ago. This is with using Mike's fluid. I'm still rounding up ingredients to try the lysol based fluid.
I have to say it's a positive result so far. I am spending extra time on the scrubbing, and double rinsing with separate brush, so I think I am getting all I can out of it.
The improved sound quality after cleaning is making me start think about better cart, preamp, etc. The noise was good excuse for not caring about vinyl SQ. I'm hoping some of the sound issues I am hearing are fixed with the new speakers. It's still not clean enough to warrant spending money on better rig or more records, but hopefully I can improve it some more, then we'll let nature take its course: vinyl rabbit hole...
I am hopeful that the records can be made even more quiet, but at what cost?