Is a good Cermic Cartridge an Oxymoron?

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.