"Will I hear the difference brought by the Nova’s better transducers on my modest system?"
There is no difference between the 2. Nova uses same transducer. Just has more features. Actual cleaning will be identical.
"My plan would be to spin clean first with surfactant, then US in distilled water only"
I use SP before HG(water only)
HG won't perform miracles but can quiet/eliminate trouble areas on used LP's the SP can't. A real scrubbing procedure like some here do- THEN HG, would likely produce better results.
Original HG good buy for $395. Good enough results to not want a Degritter or other proper US.

