sleeving AudioNote tonearm wiring

May I ask how you tested the wire? Are you planning on wiring the inside of the arm only, or is the wire going all the way to the preamp? I have some suggestions, but am unclear about what exactly you are doing.

If you are replacing the internal tone arm wire only, I personally would not "sleeve" it in any way. One of the beauties of this wire, as you know, is that it is extremely fine which is very desirable for the free movement of the arm at the pivot. Anything that you sleeve it with will decrease it's flexibility; not ideal.

Great wire!

So far the wire just sits on top of the arm, just for testing it out. The wire will go right from the cartridge up to the preamp (about 3 feet I would say). I was planning to let it trought the arm (with no sleeving like you said) through the pivot down to arm base, at which point I was planning to start the sleeve at the point where the wire exits the base. I tried the nylon guitar string through the pivot and it goes fine :)
I guess I will need to fix the wire at the base exit, I was thinking about using the original plastic cap (it has an outside thread to thread it into the arm base. Original Sumiko inside arm wiring was from cart to this plastic cap (wiring was solded on the inside 5 points including ground wire), and then on the outside I still have a cable with plastic female which I won't be using any longer, that part took it to the preamp.
I may just drill a small hole in the plastic cap which goes into the arm base to let the wiring plus the sleeve through. Hope it makes sense, would appreciate your thoughts.
Thank you
Anatoliy

That is a great way to do it. I did something similar with my ET2 air bearing arm, although with this arm I kept the wire external the entire span. With this arm the wire needs to make a loop for free lateral movement of the arm. Up to that point, the wire is not sleeved. Then, right after the loop, each channel's pair of wires is braided and then each braided pair is inserted into a length of very small diameter Teflon tubing, like is used to insulate capacitor leads. Each Teflon tube is then covered with copper mesh. Each length of copper mesh has a "pigtail" of insulated wire with a spade soldered to it at the preamp end to attach to the preamp's grounding lug. The copper mesh is then covered with polyester mesh. It is very effective and looks good. I have the wire soldered directly to the preamps circuit board, thus eliminating several solder joints and jacks for significant gains in sonic purity.

Your plan should work very well. Pay particular attention to strain relief at the point that the wire exits the arm. Perhaps you can put a small amount of silicone adhesive in the hole you will drill in the plastic cap. Do braid each pair of wires for increased RFI rejection. Good luck.

Anatoliy,

Would you mind sharing your source for the exact wire that you're using? Is it the three stranded wire with the Polyurethane insulation?

Frogman,

That is exactly how I wired my ET-2 tonearm except I didn't twist the pairs after the loop or put the polyurethane mesh on. I read somewhere that Lloyd Walker does not twist the pairs unless there's an RF interference problem. Did you have an interference issue?

Great small tutorial, thanks much, this helps!
Speaking about Teflon – the reason I wanted to have cotton sleeve is that I like how cotton (or silk) feels :) Though on a more serious note I agree with the opinion that cotton will not provide any proof against the corrosion, certainly not like Teflon, but I want to take a risk at this point.
A couple of questions - how did you put the wire through Teflon and then through the mesh? Did you use some specific tool or just some long needle or some rigid steel wire?
Do you think I should ‘ground’ the arm tube as well as the mesh?
And about the mesh itself – can you recall your supplier or just any copper mesh of the right size will do?
Thank you again