Advice needed on sub $1000 setup

If you don't have room treatment such as bass traps, and you can fit them in to your room, I would put your money there before getting a vinyl rig. I recently did this and I was surprised how good it made digital sound. You can get some pretty nice products that look good and are affordable from places such as GIK. A $1000 won't get you much of a vinyl rig, but it will be enough for some reasonable room treatment and from my experience I know the improvements it can bring to an existing digital based system will be far greater than what you will hear from adding a $1000 vinyl rig. It will be a true improvement, whereas a $1000 vinyl rig will be a lateral move not really improving your system, only adding another medium of playback to an existing system. And it really will make your digital system sound better than awesome.

Bmckenney, you make a good point, though it is backwards in Mark's reality. Obviously, he is not looking to maximize on analog primarily. He wants to upgrade to better components. Treatments will benefit everything acoustically in the future. Where are you getting CD info from? I dont see anything mentioned in Mark's post. Mark, what are you presently using for analog playback?

Well, looks like a modified Rega P3 is coming my way. Haven't heard back on the pre yet and still need a cartridge...The 304 looks like a sweet cart, but probably out of my budget at the moment (I was out of work for 49 weeks! Just started back...)

Bmckenney - I hear you on the acoustic treatment and agree a little money here can greatly improve a system. I've done a little work in this area but should do more. The reason behind the vinyl rig is I have a decent LP collection that I seldom play. My table is a Yamaha P-520 (direct drive, auto) that I bought over 25 years ago when I was in college. The cartridge is some inexpensive AT that was purchased at the same time as the table and I'm using a junk $20 pre to send it into my B&K. A $1000 (or less) vinyl rig is going to be like night and day.

A note on the cartridges - unless the Rega has been modified to provide VTA adjustment - you are a bit limited to the cartridges that will work best with the P3. You know the Rega cartridges will work. I find them solid but a bit overpriced for what you get. Does anybody know if the Denon cartridges will work with the P3 without VTA issues? Other cartridges that are a good match with Rega arm?

For more discussion on topic, see here:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1243258300&read&keyw&zzcartridge+match+for+rega+p3

here:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1213696824&read&keyw&zzcartridge+match+for+rega+p3

and here:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1211335189&read&keyw&zzcartridge+match+for+rega+p3

Thanks Knownothing. The P3 I'm getting is the older P3, not the P3-24, so I think that means the shell is a 2-point mount, not a 3 point like the new RB301 arm (mine is a RB300 arm). The new Rega carts appear to be designed for 3 point mount. Can anyone tell me if they will still work on a RB300 arm?

BTW - I heard back on the Lehmann pre - so it is down to picking a cartridge. Thus far I've spent $700 for a Rega P3 with a Deepgrove subplatter, custom hardwood plinth, and a spare motor, and a Lehmann black cube preamp. That leaves me about $300 for a cartridge.

Some of the candidates:
Rega Elys 2 (sold with the new P3-24, but will it work on the RB300 arm?)
Denon DL-160 (I've seen a few reports of happy users with the P2 and P3)
Denon DL-103 (haven't found any reports users with this on a RB300 arm yet)
Benz MC20EL2 (prior owner used a Benz Ace, more $$$ than I can spare right now. Saw a few good reports on the low end Benz)
others?