The sound you describe sounds typical of not having enough gain, which would not be unusual considering the Bellari only has 30 db of gain. I could not find the ouput of the Shure you are using but to sound good with the Bellari you are going to need a MM cartridge with a significant output.
The easiest way for you to troubleshoot this is to try to borrow a phono stage with more gain (probably around 38-40 db). If that works (and I would expect it would), your options are to replace either the phono stage or the cartridge, matching up gain to the output value of the cartridge.
A very good guideline for doing this can be found on the www.kabusa.com website in the phono preamp gain computer.
The easiest way for you to troubleshoot this is to try to borrow a phono stage with more gain (probably around 38-40 db). If that works (and I would expect it would), your options are to replace either the phono stage or the cartridge, matching up gain to the output value of the cartridge.
A very good guideline for doing this can be found on the www.kabusa.com website in the phono preamp gain computer.