Turntable setup is where small efforts pay the biggest returns, and half of it costs nothing.
The free wins first. Level the platter. Set tracking force with a gauge instead of by eye — even a cheap one beats guessing. Check anti-skate against the manufacturer's setting. Then the one almost everybody misses: the ground wire from the tonearm base. In my experience it is almost always the culprit in turntable hum — broken, loose, or never connected. Next suspect is the cartridge's ground strap, and after that you are looking at the phono stage.
Belts are the other silent killer on belt-drive decks. A stretched belt slips, and slipping shows up as warble long before it shows up as stopping. On idler drives, the wheel hardens and gets noisy instead.
Then the cartridge itself. Alignment protractors can be printed for nothing. Overhang and offset sound like jargon until the first time you align properly and the inner tracks stop sounding shredded.
So, the question for this thread: what single setup change moved your table the most? Tracking force? A real alignment? A cleaning routine? A fresh belt? Post your table, your cartridge, and the change — and what you heard afterward. Specifics help the next reader act on it.