Garrard Motors

[gillsev]

The Lab 80 was the last model using the Hysteresis/Synchronous motor that required a heavy balanced platter to act as a massive flywheel to smooth out platter rotation.
After that came the Induction/Synchronous motor (most well known as Garrard's "Synchro-Lab" series) starting with the SL95B model. Since the induction section of this motor gets it up to speed quickly, then the synchronous part locks to the line frequency, they didn't need to produce large heavy platters for them. If you notice that platters produced after the Lab 80 were thinner, smaller and lighter. To me, these looked cheap.
Dunno 'bout you but I prefer the previous design of the Lab 80 with a massive platter. They just look and felt more solid when it comes to platter stablility. Quality wise that is. :thmbsp:

 

[woodj]

Although not necessarily Garrard, I'm with you. Hysteresis motors are electromechanically rather noiseless. The theory with the heavy turntables was not only that they are flywheels, but the best were perfectly machined and balanced to reduce vibration/oscillation. Belts were also scrutinized and/or machined to close tolerances.
Waiting a few seconds for a turntable to "make" speed has never been an impediment to me. The end result is what I look for.
Of course, much machining and balancing can get expensive, and boy, we can get impatient