Upgrade turntable or buy a record cleaning machine

Get a better turntable. Clean your records with steam...far better than rcm

I would get the RCM first, if you aren't cleaning your records well, you have no idea what your current table can do.

A better cartridge is basically a waste of money for that tonearm. Anything that tracks optimally is probably a lateral move.

Upgrade the table as others have recommended.

If you don't want to try the steam method, look for a pre-owned Record Doctor manual cleaning machine. I've seen them on Audiogon for under $200. Don't underestimate the importance of clean records.

Not sure what cartridge you're using on the mmf-7.1 but unless it's something better than a Dynavector 20XL, I disagree with Audiofeil. That said, IF you're fairly serious about listening to LPs and either already have hundreds of them and/or plan on purchasing hundreds (thousands?) of them I'd get a good RCM.

The fully manual systems work well but become irritatingly tedious after a while, at least it was for me. A manual RCM (basically a vacuuming machine) works very well but also becomes a bit tedious after a few hundred LPs. I have a manual RCM and I've resurrected some really dirty looking used LPs back to VG+ and nearly M- condition. But I wish now I'd spent the money for a good automatic RCM in the first place.

Like you, I'd eventually like to upgrade the turntable but I've been listening to the mmf-7 for three years now with a couple different LOMC cartridges and it sounds very good. I'm in no hurry to replace it.

Tom