The Illuminator is a great tweak in my opinion-I use it and wouldn't do without it. Used to use the Audioprism CD Blacklight mat, and found that it worked better with a lower performance player, as the player improved, the mat had less of an effect and I stopped using it. An excellent tweak for a budget player in my opinion are the vibrapods in conjunction with a bit of mass loading on the player to damp out any vibration. Throw (not literally!) two or 3 bricks on top of your player (if it can support the weight) and then buy the correct vibrapods to support the weight of the player and the bricks and you'll get a pretty significant improvement for about $20.
