Should I purchase an expensive phono preamp

EJ, yes, they all have very low capacitance specs. And it's not critical for the phono preamp to receiver connection.

The critical part for MM carts. is from the tonearm to phono preamp connection. The Goldring 1000 series specified capacitance is 150-200 pf (picofarads). To achieve this, you'd have to know the capacitance of the Rega tonearm cables and add that to the default capacitance in the Bellari and then either add or subtract capacitance to meet that spec. by using little load capacitors inside the Bellari. I don't know (doubt) if the Bellari provides for that amount of tweaking.

Bottom line, don't sweat it for now.

I'm using a Graham Slee Gram Amp 2SE & love it! My front end is Goldring 1042/RB300 Incognito arm rewire(Self Inflicted) and Michell's Counterweight upgrade, on a 1988 Roksan Xerxes. Do make sure your T/T is well isolated (preferably on a wall shelf)the GS costs Appx £200GBP but has a lot of Oomph! This being cleanly administered dynamic clout.

Ok. It's a year later and I have upgraded the receiver to an Arcam AVR 300. So the question is, do I upgrade the TT, arm, cartridge or phono preamp. I have a Nottingham Horizon TT with the Rega 250 arm, Goldring 1012 MM cartridge and the Bellari VP129 phono stage. I am thinking about the Ear 834p and upgrading the cartridge at this point. I am wondering about the arm and possibly moving up to the Spacedeck.

Others may have more valuable insights than me, but you have what seems to be a fairly well matched analog setup at the moment, and if it were me, I might try out some different MM carts first and see where that got me. Raul posted a thread recently about some carts he thinks are good performers, two of which are MM's. Check it out here http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1173550723&read&3&4&

Seems to me that your phono pre-amp is now out classed by everything else that you have updated. I think your idea of upgrading the phono pre to the Ear 834 and upgrading the cartridge is the right way to go. The Ear has lots of good press and the units go quick on Audiogon. The Space Deck with the Bellari would not be, in my opinion, a good match. Also, if you jump up to the Space Deck, it may cause you to start the process of componant matching all over again: pretty costly. But, hey, isn't it fun??!!

Good luck.