Are more turntable motors better?


I did a quick search of the archives and couldn't find a thread about this, feel free to show me if I didn't look hard enough. Question is: are more motors better in a belt-driven table? Seems like pricier models are always more likely to have more motors, and manufacturers offer addtional motors as upgrades, but does it always result in improved sound? Theoretically, additional motors may tend to cancel out each others speed fluctuations, but overall noise may be higher. Thoughts?
klinerm
Yes more motors are better in my experience. There are two camps here. Camp one: use a single low torque motor coupled to a very high mass platter. Camp 2: 2 or more high torque motors turing a low mass platter. I have been in both camps in the past, and I can honestly say that multiple motors turning a low mass (relatively) platter produce a much more involving more soulful, more punchy presentation that is at the top of the PRAT scale.

Yes more motors make more noise. Yes coupling 2 or 3 of them to a lightweight platter provides more opportunities for hum and vibration to reach the platter. Thats why the platter is low mass. Its like a bell. A large diameter bell transmits more collected energy into sound pressure waves than a smaller diameter bell. Thick massive platters tend to just collect, store and transmit more room energy into the stylus than with a low mass platter. Low mass platters don't collect or store nearly as much energy. There is less platter to do so.

I know common sense would tell you that a more massive platter will isolate the record and stylus from freewave airborne energy more effectively than a low mass one, but this assumption is incorrect.

That low mass platter being driven with high high torque is what produces some of the most involving analog I have ever heard anywhere.

I am not a physicist so I can't give you the numbers. What I can say is that hearing is believing to me. Oh yeah.....there was a question here. More motors is better!
Using a flywheel to smooth out the drive is probably better, but not applicable in all cases. I remember seeing Micro Seiki using one of their massive tables as a flywheel to drive an identical table, using silk thread from the motor and between the tables. That was nearly 30 years ago, associated equipment then was not up to revealing how good the sound probably was. I use a single motor flywheel on my VPI Aries and it works very well. Whichever system is ultimately superior is not as important as how well the individual design has been executed.
More is better (for the Seller) =)
in Reality:
there are only 2 kind of motors out there
-good ones which do the job right
-and the bad ones (they compensate each other, but it looks serious =))