Should I purchase an expensive phono preamp

If the tonearm cables are hardwired to your Rega, I'd just let it be for now. Whatever they are. the'll be good enough for what you're about to put together.

Later on, you might decide to get an altogether new arm for your TT, new arm and TT, or maybe upgrade the Rega at britaudio as Dan_ed suggests. For now, just get a decent entry model pair of ICs (Bellari to receiver) from one of the above reputable manufacturers and you should be fine.

Give us ome idea of what you like about what you have and what you don't Also unltimate transducer is your speakers.I know it is sophisticated to say that you can use lesserr speakers "That's it's only the kids at Circut City or Best Buy" who say "It's all in the speakers and you should put 50% or more into them" I disagree with those who don't realize it is the ultimate transducer and DOES have greatest effect on sound (all other elemensts being frozen).I am skeptic about gear cables,mods,but have had many work out well and be worth investment .Much other is snake oil.But as ususal I digress.
You haven't let us know what you have in total and a strategy you have for your system..Hate to be blunt but maybe your speakers ARE crap and needs to be swapped out with reciever.And speakers should be decided on first and one chjooses amplificatiion needed from them.I am amazed foten at folks who ay "Im just bought a pair of $10K tube monoblocks and want speaker reccomendations for them".This to me is Bass ackwards.For the mid fi crowd the Elite stuff is pretty good and with their $500 speakers and does a fine job.But given the rest of your ig and given folks are telling how to spread your money around you should let us in on what speakers they are using.Tell us if you like them,the receiver (even if we pooh pooh it it's your ears and given the resty of your rig you show good judgement and ability to assesss).But diference between $200 and $1500 phono depends on what else you have,.how you think it sounds,and how you might upgrade any companonenet receiever or speaker and how you want to go about it.Might be you are spending what you can in a building block fashion and leting us know this helps.But if you want to get the rig complate and BALANCED we would need to know what speakers you have and any plans to relave anything what you can spend and when.Know this was long wided but as I have said in many of my postsbrevity isn't my strong suit.But re-reading the post up to this point it seemed top be full of holes.
Best
Chazz

Chazz

In an earlier post I stated that I have Paradigm speakers. The system was set up originally as a 5.1 surround sound home theater with the Pioneer Elite AV Receiver (with built in phonostage). DVD's and CD's sound pretty good. I had one of the cheap $200 turntables that went bad (have 300+ lp's) and when I started looking at replacing it I was astounded at how far tt's had come. After research I was able to get the Nottingham with the Rega arm from Audiogon. After being satisfied initially, I noticed that (like described by others) I had to turn down the treble and turn up the bass on most lp's to get the sound I wanted. So the step I am at now is get a stand alone phono stage.

I'm using Paradigm Studio 60's in my HT. They're not bad. I wouldn't necessarily use them in an audio system but I don't think the Paradigm's will hinder your enjoyment of music. I have heard some of the newer Monster Cable IC's that you can pick up at any Best Buy or Circuit City. They should be good enough to let you hear what's going on. If it were me I wouldn't get to crazy unless you really start upgrading equipment.

NsGarch
Are all of the cables you mentioned low capacitance? What exactly do you consider to be low capacitance? I am having a hard time finding the capacitance for these interconnects as it does not seem to advertised on most of the sites relating to the products. Also, do you have any recommendations as to where to purchase these interconnects (except for the Audioquest which seems to be readily available on several websites).