As mentioned, a good cartridge is of paramount importance. It must also be aligned properly. There is a nice protractor that you can download from the internet - contact me off board if you wish to go this route. But a better idea is to have someone familiar with setup do this for you.
There are really a lot of free tweeks that you can do with this table. The second most important thing, once your cartridge is sorted out, will be to find a suitable surface to perch your table on. Usually, light tables work better than heavy, but experimentation is in order here. You can use little blocks of wood or cones under the table as well, and this may, or may not, work. Remember, your cartridge converts movement into electricity; the only movement you want is from the grooves in your record.
Your tonearm has no easy way to adjust vertical tracking angle. That is the angle at which the stylus meets the groove as seen from the side. Back of the arm down is usually warmer, back up is usually brighter. There is generally just one place that Goldilocks will consider just right. Take some old, worn out records, or perhaps some 12" round pieces of cardboard. Put them under the turntable mat, on top of the platter. Add one, listen, then another. You are changing the VTA, by raising the record and thus the sound. The only way to go the other way is to find a thinner mat.
When you remove the headshell on your turntable, you will see that there is a little rubber ring on the mounting collet. Try listening both with and without this ring. It will sound a bit faster without it. Remember that you must recheck the overhang when making this comparison.
If you tap along the length of the arm with a pencil, you will come to a point where the sound is brighter and louder than the others. This is the primary resonant point of the arm. Take a bit of Blue Tack or that coiled clay for sealing windows and roll it into a little line, apply this around the arm at the point of resonance. This can make a really big difference in sound. Sometimes it will take you in the wrong direction though. Again, you will need to rebalance the arm when you do this. You may find that a dot on the headshell also helps; easy, a little goes a long way, and too much sucks the life out of the sound.
Oh yes, also get some record cleaning gear. The Disk Doctor makes some cool stuff that is cheap. The more you play with the darned thing, the more tweeks you will find. Happy listneing.
Marty
