"The Focal's are very accurate and tend to be bright in the highs. Brightness is what I am trying to avoid. I've found the highs to be too harsh for my liking, especially with vocals."
I see why you're immediately targeting the cartridge given your budget, but look at what Jperry said above as you could potentially fix the real source of the problem with little/no additional net $$$ outlay. I think you're making a big mistake trying to fix this through the cartridge. By definition you'll have to buy something that's rolled off in the highs, and since you're planning on upgrading your speakers in a year you'll very likely be shopping for another cartridge again in a year (at additional expense). Plus, I don't see anything else in your system that points to brightness -- quite the contrary (including the Grado) -- although I didn't catch what you're using for cables/interconnects that may also be contributing here.
Sounds like you arrived at this issue by buying on price and expedience rather than focusing primarily on sound and, just as importantly, system synergy. Time to stop that. Don't polish the turd here -- SOLVE THE PROBLEM and be done with it. You may well find with the right speakers you may not feel the need to upgrade anything else, at least for a while. Something from Joseph Audio (there's a nice pair of RM25XLs for sale right now that wouldn't cost much more than what you could sell your Focals for),PMC (nice pair of twenty.23s up for sale too), or Nola are a few that jump to mind that are probably more refined in the frequency range causing your problem. At least find a way to audition something like these in your system before throwing money at other components.
Really sorry if I'm sounding preachy here, but this strikes me as a situation where taking the quick, easy bandaid approach would be a mistake when there are options to do it right the first time. Best of luck, and please keep us posted on whatever you decide.
I see why you're immediately targeting the cartridge given your budget, but look at what Jperry said above as you could potentially fix the real source of the problem with little/no additional net $$$ outlay. I think you're making a big mistake trying to fix this through the cartridge. By definition you'll have to buy something that's rolled off in the highs, and since you're planning on upgrading your speakers in a year you'll very likely be shopping for another cartridge again in a year (at additional expense). Plus, I don't see anything else in your system that points to brightness -- quite the contrary (including the Grado) -- although I didn't catch what you're using for cables/interconnects that may also be contributing here.
Sounds like you arrived at this issue by buying on price and expedience rather than focusing primarily on sound and, just as importantly, system synergy. Time to stop that. Don't polish the turd here -- SOLVE THE PROBLEM and be done with it. You may well find with the right speakers you may not feel the need to upgrade anything else, at least for a while. Something from Joseph Audio (there's a nice pair of RM25XLs for sale right now that wouldn't cost much more than what you could sell your Focals for),PMC (nice pair of twenty.23s up for sale too), or Nola are a few that jump to mind that are probably more refined in the frequency range causing your problem. At least find a way to audition something like these in your system before throwing money at other components.
Really sorry if I'm sounding preachy here, but this strikes me as a situation where taking the quick, easy bandaid approach would be a mistake when there are options to do it right the first time. Best of luck, and please keep us posted on whatever you decide.