Rega Apheta 3 Capacitance 1000pF???

Based on my experience, I have to agree with yogiboy.  I currently have a Rega P10/Apheta 3.  Prior to this, I had the Rega RP10/Apheta 2 and Aria phono stage.  I may be wrong but I think the Apheta 2 and 3 have the same specifications only the stylus has changed.  I first upgraded the Aria phono stage to a Luxman EQ-500 vacuum tube phono stage.  The upgrade was a big improvement.  The Luxman capacitance is selectable from 0, 50, 100, 150, 200, and 300pf.  I tried the different capacitance settings and it made no SQ difference.  I have since upgraded to the P10/Apheta 3 and it sounds great with the Luxman phono stage.

smatsui thanks for your input.  That's great to hear.  Keith Herron is building me a VTPH-2A and I'm greatly looking forward to getting the unit hooked up to my gear.  I was a bit mistaken when I first posted: I believe with his loading plugs he can get all the way up to 1000pF if needed.  It will be interesting playing with the plugs at different capacitances to hear if there are any discernible differences.  

Why would Rega spec a cartridge with 1000pF

Are you sure this isn't a typo? It does not sound right. For more info see:
http://www.hagtech.com/loading.html

atmasphere 1000pF is their spec. You can see it at the specs for their cartridges and their phono stages.  The phonos even are switchable to higher capacitances.  Cited often in reviews of their phono gear. 

@sumadoggie 

Sheesh. I didn't realize this is a low output cartridge. You don't really need any capacitance at all, the rules regarding low output cartridges apply at the link I provided. 
http://www.hagtech.com/loading.html
From that webpage:

The super-low self-inductance of a moving coil cartridge puts them in their own category. At such levels, the loading capacitance becomes relatively insignificant, with system bandwidth now dominated by inductance and load resistance.

In a nutshell, you're better off without it. Just go to the top of that page and drop in 1000pf into the calculator and look at the resulting frequency. Then take a look at the default inductance value; its way more than the value for a low output cartridge like the Rega. Go ahead and drop in a value of a magnitude lower inductance and you will see what I mean. You really do want that pf value to be as low as possible in this situation, putting the resonant peak at as high a frequency as you can. This reduces the possibility of the peak overloading the input of the phono section. To this end, you also want to use low capacitance cable for the tonearm interconnect, as this value is part of the peak. I really don't know what Rega is thinking here, but that 1000pf value is bad advice. If there is a variable I'm not thinking of, its certainly not obvious from the specs on their website.

Any LP has bandwidth to 40KHz or so although its rare to see actual information much above about 25KHz as microphones and tapes don't go much higher. This is part of how LPs are able to sound better than digital in many cases- it has more bandwidth.