Why three motors?

As a recent convert/owner of an AC1 I too am mighty curious and sceptical. There are some A'goners who have traversed the 3 motor route. Would be interesting to hear from them.
Loved the wooden armboard in one of the pics. Can it be ordered?
Cheers

Hello Sunnyboy, seen your setup. Why not use the short belt?

Yeah, Hiho did alarmed me. For a while, I thought my 3 months TW Raven is obsolete.

I have never listened to any of these 3-motor tables, but the configuration shown, where the belt contacts the platter on only one side of the "triangle" would seem to be a worst-case set-up for "belt creep", as first described (to me) by Mark Kelly on Vinyl Asylum. In fact, to minimize belt creep, the belt should contact the platter over as much of its circumference as possible, e.g., the pulley of a single motor should be snug up as close as possible to the edge of the platter. Or you can use a capstan-like extra pulley to keep the belt in contact with the platter a la the Artemis turntable. (I think that's the one with the capstan. Could be wrong.) Other solutions or ways to at least ameliorate belt creep have been proposed but are not commercially available. But 3 motors makes no sense to me.

Donwunder: "Where did you get that information from?? Exactly where has TW changed course??"

I have seen the 3-motors version on their website before and now it's NOT listed on their website - http://www.tw-acustic.de/engl/turntables - so I made an assumption that they are not offering that anymore. I apologize for not making that clear earlier. But why is that option not on the website anymore, just curious? Let's say they didn't change course, the question remains what is the engineering reason behind such unconventional approach. Any suggestions for the discussion?

Speaking of 3 motors, their flagship Raven Black Night uses 3 motors in a single housing with THREE pulleys, which in itself a curious design. Is it to increase triple the torque and/or to combat belt slip or belt creep, etc?

Lewm: "the configuration shown, where the belt contacts the platter on only one side of the "triangle" would seem to be a worst-case set-up for "belt creep"...... 3 motors makes no sense to me."

Lewm, perhaps you can get some hint from their writing about the Black Night, if not the AC3:

"Thanks to the three-motor drive and the battery power supply, the Raven Black Night does its job with poise, serenity and composure, yet just like the other TW-Acustic turntables, it is highly dynamic, involving and rich in timbre. The Raven Black Night is incredibly musical, its spatial presentation is so three-dimensional and tangible that the music is always reproduced with the utmost authenticity."

You see, it just does its job.

_____