Uh oh...
I wandered into the ambiguous "AT95E cartridge" thread...
All kidding aside...this cartridge came standard on my turntable and I have experienced more negatives than positives with it (I won't bash it, because it's simply not fair and I do understand it "is what it is") including siblilant highs (even when running it at higher than 2.0 grams) and horrendous end-of-side distortion, that I still can't get rid of. Now, I know everyone is going to immediately turn to "your cart is out of alignment! The AT95E should have ZERO IGD!!" but I have read reviews from just as many people who have found they also could never get rid of the IGD with this cart...and that the only way was to upgrade to a microline like the 440. What's more, my tracking force and anti skate appear to be dialed in correctly (I'm using a digital gauge to measure stylus force) so...
Well, since you didn't say right out you've already done it, I suggest you check the alignment
Also make sure your stylus is still in good shape and both it and the record is clean. While you're at it, don't simply use the cartridge body for aligning, but the cantilever itself, and since you already have your eyes zoomed in, make sure azimuth is also correct. It's a very cheap cartridge and while quality control seems to be generally good (astonishing really for the money you pay, they must have a highly automated and effective manufacturing line I suppose), it's possible you've got a bad example where the cantilever is somehow at an angle or twisted, or the diamond is mounted incorrectly. Checking the tonearm for signs of bearing friction or play in the bearings would also be a good idea.
There's more to IGD than the cartridge / stylus used, it's really the combination of turntable/tonearm/cartridge & record. Many used records have distortion at the ends of sides due to being played by poor / poorly setup gear or bad styli. If the damage is minor, with some setups you might not notice it at all, especially if you happen to use a different stylus shape than the damage was done with. Also the better the tonearm is the less "challenges" it will present to the cartridge, so the same cartridge/stylus might have IGD problems in one turntable but play the same records flawlessly in a different one.
That said, in my experience various line contact shapes are often good at 'ignoring' damage since they have a longer contact surface vertically, so part of the stylus might stay in contact with undamaged parts of the groove. Likewise, since the cartridge tracks & traces better, it might be less sensitive in that sense to challenges presented by the tonearm, mainly the bearings (friction or bearing play or both). Sometimes the easiest solution might be to just get a better cart/stylus, even if it wasn't necessarily the root of the problem, or just one part of it.
Lastly, it seems sensitivity to IGD varies a lot between people and some people hear and can't tolerate even the slightest amounts while others won't seem to really even notice it until it gets really bad.
If you like the basic sound of the AT95E (aside from the issues you're having) one of the aftermarket upgrade styli might be cost effective, or you could just get something like the 440MLa (or MLb) which is kind of a bargain in the present market. On the other hand, personally I've come to the conclusion money is better spent at investing in the turntable & tonearm first, because a good turntable is a lasting improvement that won't wear out on you every 300-2000 hours and then when you get a more expensive cartridge, you'll get the most out of it.
