Advice needed on sub $1000 setup

I've been eying the VP130 preamp...though I found a Lehmann black cube at a great price - haven't heard back from the seller yet, but if it isn't sold I'm going to give it a try (for less $$$ than the Bellari).

I'm also waiting to hear back on a used P3, but I'm going to need a cartridge. The Denon DL-160 appears to be a popular budget cartridge - even more so than the DL-103 which seems surprising. Also looking at inexpensive offerings from Benz and Rega....suggestions?

The Bellari is good, the Lehmann is better. Rega's are great TT for the price. Denon's are wonderful cartridges. You have been doing your homework I see. Though, put extra in this case on the cartridge. Try to squeeze in a DL-304 if you can. Check the specs on the Lehmann, the 304 has only .18mv output (MC). Other than that, you have put together a great 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.