Cartridge recommendation for classical listening

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

Since you now have a different cartridge, but apparently also high output, the same rules apply. You might like it now, but if loaded properly it will get better. Here is an online calculator for discerning the loading values:
http://www.hagtech.com/loading.html

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.

such as, the beauty diminishing as I turned the volume up.

@rvpiano,  If the volume has something to do with it, that's not the cartridge.

Whenever  the volume is turned up there is a harshness in the treble.

@rvpiano
So if the volume is down its OK? That might be vibration reaching the turntable when the tunes are cranked. You might want to try a platform to reduce vibration.


The other thing to pay attention to is loading. High output cartridges have a lot of inductance- in concert with the capacitance of the tonearm cable, this causes an electrical high frequency resonance. That can make it sound bright if its in the audio region. If the Sumiko is higher inductance than the Grado this might be why you didn't hear that before. Its easy to tame- take a look at this link:http://www.hagtech.com/loading.html


Getting the loading right is critical to get the most out of high output cartridges!!

?? It sounded like you enjoyed what the Sumiko was doing!

I would still consider getting the motor grounded in your turntable. But some cartridges are less sensitive to that noise (Sumiko) and there is an old saying I'm sure you've heard before- 'if it works don't fix it'  :)

I've had good luck with the Sumiko cartridges. Like any other, it must be a good match with the tonearm.

I know Grados can have this defect, and the extensively modified Rega P3 turntable I use can contribute to the problem

The problem here is not the cartridge but the turntable. For unknown reasons Rega doesn't ground their motor and so it can inject hum into the cartridge- most often Grado gets the blame for this. I have placed a wire between the motor and the base of the arm, grounding the two together and solving the problem.


Its too bad there isn't more feedback about this issue!

Cartridges cannot be designed to favor classical music! The idea that any component can favor a certain genre is entirely mythological. Usually this idea is applied to speakers but it really doesn't matter- what makes a component good for one genre makes it good for another.