Bay...Yes it does come like that and I tore the cantilever right off about a year ago with my LP brush

As to Benz inventory or lack thereof, I believe it has to do with them being a very small shop and having more demand than they can deal with, although, it does not seem like they have the same issues keeping inventory in Europe and Asia, so I am not sure what the whole story is there. I do know the US importer has had issues with them for a while. They have been quoting me a year turnaround to do a retip on the cart. I may just have to bite the bullet and either do a Soundsmith retip which will change the sonic character of the cart or go with something like the Dynavector 20X-2 for now until I can pony up for a hgher end cart. We'll see.