Is it possible for a record to be too loud?

What's the gain you're using with your cartridge? 1.05 mV is quite high for a MC cart and would overload the phono stage at most MC gain settings. If a record is cut hot on top of it, it would only exacerbate the problem.

Atmasphere
A moving coil phono section that overloads with 1mV from the cartridge is a phono section with poor overload characteristics, FWIW.

Atmasphere,
It surely cannot be true. Perhaps you or Al can elaborate, but overloading is a function of the cartridge's output AND the phono stage's gain/sensitivity setting, isn't it? Theoretically, you could probably overload with a low output MC cart if you have a gain mismatch large enough. From your post, it sounds like you can only overload with MM carts.

I'm always baffled how much gain matching is ignored in discussions on this forum. This thread is a good example. On my modest (compared to many A-goner) system, a difference of a few dB between an optimal and sub-optimal gain setting can easily be heard. The sound becomes unpleasantly shrill and just sounds too loud even at lower volume settings. 55 dB of gain with a cartridge with an output of 1.05 mV is a huge mismatch under most circumstances, in my opinion and experience. Perhaps with a passive line stage it may be ok, but never an active one. I'd guess anything above 50 dB would be too much gain for this cart. I have a Hall & Oates record that's recorded so hot that it sounds just too loud even on the setting that works with every other record. I'd look into it first.