Cartridge recommendation for classical listening

Since the high end of the cartridge tends to be a little bright (which you might not agree with,) records that have a bright high end of their own are exacerbated by volume increase.

@rvpiano  As I mentioned earlier, if you have a high output cartridge, loading of the cartridge is paramount for correct performance! If not loaded correctly it is common for the unloaded cartridge to be bright. This is due to an electrical resonance that is occurring due to the inductance of the cartridge and the capacitance of the tone arm interconnect cable (plus the input capacitance of the phono section).


For this reason, its a good idea to use a low capacitance interconnect cable- to push the resonance up and outside of the audio band!!

IOW the brightness you hear may not be an actual characteristic of the cartridge- and is just a setup issue; one which happens with many cartridges. Since this is a really inexpensive thing to deal with, its worth it to look into this before moving on.

Atmasphere,

You may indeed be right about the inductance and capacitance, but it was much easier to change cartridges.

Well, I just got the Clear Audio, and even without break in, the difference is very noticeable.  On some of my favorite records that were harsh with the Sumiko,  there is smoothness, yet no detail is lacking.  I can enjoy them again!
On good sounding records, there is a smaller difference, but the Clear Audio shines as well as the Sumiko, and there might be better bass definition.
More, after I listen to a great variety of records.

Welcome back to MM club, there is no benefits of HOMC over MM in my opinion. Glad you like Virtuoso.

My advice is to inspect your Grado stylus tip and refresh it if it's worn. 

I love my Grado TXZ so much and i hope you can fix your Grado Reference Sonata. Here is grado factory tour, very interesting. 

I’ve listened to bits of  a great variety of records, and, so far, the cartridge has done a wonderful job on almost all, bringing out details I never heard before, and yet sounding very elegant and musical.  It is smooth throughout the tonal spectrum.
 I’ll report more as I listen to more repertoire.