Is a good Cermic Cartridge an Oxymoron?

I am sure that every single person who has played LPs has destroyed at least one stylus in this way :-( It was my luck to do it to a MC cartridge with non-replaceable stylus.

Ain't digital great!

Throughout the 1980s I used a Jeff Rowland strain gauge board and a Panasonic strain gauge cartridge. I think I paid about $300 for the board and about $35 for cartridges and maybe $20 for stylii. I still have some of each but I sold off my Rowland board a few years ago. It was quite inexpensive relative to the performance level.

Hey Ghostrider,
Thanks for the correction on those MA carts and sorry to hear about the trashing of your stylus.
I just purchased a low end MA from the classifieds here and mounted it to test with the Metzner - No Hum whatsoever! Very good frequency range - so-so tracking - but very, very microphonic - lots of surface noise.
Was your top end MA also microphonic? Does the fixed nature of the magnets in these carts somehow make them immune to the high amount of EMF transmitted by single-pole induction motor driven tables?
Thanks, Mario

No, my MA-780 had no noise or microphonic issues. It also tracked quite well. Perhaps it was because of its line contact stylus. The cartridge had great high end response but was just a bit bass shy. I'll miss it....

There once was a high quality, affordable ceramic cartridge, from Grado (Yes, THAT Grado). It was the Grado B series, from the mid-1960s. It fed a magnetic phono input, tracked light, 1.5 to 2 grams depending on how you set the user-adjustable compliance, and sounded superb. Unfortunately after a couple of years' use, the thing would break down, due to some problem with the ceramic element coming unbonded. Grado gave up on it and went to the magnetic Grado F, and never has looked back at the ceramic.

I guess if you HAD to, look for a Sonotone 9TAFHC-D77. It is a high output ceramic and can feed an AUX input, though a frequency-shaping network really should be used, otherwise it'll sound bass-shy. It tracks acceptably at about 2.5 grams, and that's about as low as you're ever going to get with ceramics these days.