Is a good Cermic Cartridge an Oxymoron?

Narrod...I'll take your word for it. I never used such record players. I just can't visualize the geometry of the device.

I remember coming across some while surfing the web, with the warning of ruining your records. Is this true, and if so why even make them?

I remember coming across some while surfing the web, with the warning of ruining your records. Is this true, and if so why even make them?

They were cheap and didn't require a MM phono stage.

Google "ceramic phono cartridge" and you will find a great deal of information (that I was unaware of). There is at least one respectable cartridge, priced near $80, that is said to track as low as 2 grams. Almost worth trying one just for fun.

Wait til the Idler Wheel crew hears about this!

Elartford,
Google first, ask second should have been my course.
Seems that Micro-Accoustics was making truly high end ceramics up until 1984 (well, high end back then)- with their top-of-line 830CSA Electret @ 10Hz-30kHz +/- 0.75dB freq. response and tracking at an amazing low mass of 0.75 to 1.25 grams with beryllium cantilever - $335.00
These Electret line of ceramic carts came with an internal micro-circuit to convert amplitude and reduce piezo velocity (the non-magnetic transducer material that made ceramics do their thing - made of lead-zarchonium titanate) so that output could be taken to the more prevalent MM input stage. Dang! Thought I could bypass a phono stage altogether.