Assuming you've made a good-faith effort to find the owners of the records, congrats on the haul! Takes a bit of the sting of the theft out I hope.
Some advice for you is to sell off those records you know you don't like and use the proceeds to fund a basic record washing machine. That will make a big difference to your enjoyment of the albums you keep. That lot looks old and gnarly and you'll want to get the dirt out before it gunks up your stylus. Brush alone won't do it and you have too many to comfortably do by hand.
Otherwise I assume you've followed the steps to set up your turntable properly and balance the arm rather than just plugging it in and using it? Get that (badly) wrong and you can really make a mess of the records.
(author) I've only tried out a few records so far, and that was last night when I set it all up for the first time. I didn't think to re-calibrate the turntable because the seller told me that it had been serviced by the previous owner, but it's probably a good idea to double check anyways.
Some advice for you is to sell off those records you know you don't like and use the proceeds to fund a basic record washing machine. That will make a big difference to your enjoyment of the albums you keep. That lot looks old and gnarly and you'll want to get the dirt out before it gunks up your stylus. Brush alone won't do it and you have too many to comfortably do by hand.
Otherwise I assume you've followed the steps to set up your turntable properly and balance the arm rather than just plugging it in and using it? Get that (badly) wrong and you can really make a mess of the records.