The Source turntable was designed by Mike Moore and first appeared around 1983 and by 1985 was selling in the UK, Europe, Australia and the US . It was marketed by his company, MRM Audio Products. A long time hifi enthusiast, he developed the deck in the eary 80's at his home in the south side of Glasgow while working as a carpet fitter. An admirer of Hamish Robertson, he used Hamish's Ariston RD11 deck as a basis on which to experiment. (For those interested, there is a saga concerning the roots of the RD11 and the Linn LP12 which has given rise to a number of hifi forum threads.
The STD had a heavy rectangular steel sub-chassis and four springs rather than the three on the RD11. With the help of engineer Jack Brown, who had a hand in designing Ariston, Fons and STD decks, Mike's deck had a heavier platter, made not in alluminium alloy but in phosphor-bronze. This meant changing the springs and with the STD having four, an extra one allowed him to spread the weight over a greater area and have less rocking motion but still retain a low frequency vertical motion.
The motors on the Ariston and Fons were AC and DC respectively, and STD used AC motors on the 305M and 305S models, and the same DC motor as the Fons on the 305D, with a digital speed readout and switchable speeds. Mike chose the DC route but used a Papst DC motor which had a built in rectifier allowing it to run from an low votage AC supply. This motor is no longer made. The last versions of it omitted the rectifier, thus only a DC supply could be used.
Mike's original decks, sold as MRM Audio Products "The Source", were built at his home in Glasgow, and, after the family moved to a farmhouse in Neilston, they were built there, ostensibly in a separate workspace, but mainly in the kitchen. Mike had help from Trevor Lee, to assemble the decks.
The plinth, top plate, sub-chassis, and machined parts were variously sub-contracted, and the lid, hinges, suspension parts, feet, fasteners, switches, original mat, and arm boards were bought from STD. Motors were Papst, and the deck was supplied with a small wall-mounted psu.
The deck had a two colour LED on the front together with a speed change switch, and was finished in natural or black lacquered mahogany, or light or dark oak, with either a beige or grey nextel top plate. Later there was a large power supply, the 3D, (nicknamed the coffin), which used 2 paralleled EI transformers in a standard bridge rectifier and capacitor arrangement. Mike used to remove the cover from the original cap (see right). There are a few threads relating to the Source on various forums, some of which are more accurate than others.
In 1986, he sold the name, manufacturing rights and all the stock to a company formed by Jack Lawson of the Music Room and Stephen Lamb of D.Lamb and Co Ltd, with Mike contracted to supervise the handover. This company also agreed to produce my Odyssey arms under licence, so they called the company Source-Odyssey Ltd and production commenced the following year. Subsequently, Source-Odyssey also made a revised version of the deck, the SO, introduced in 1988 which used a lighter weight subchassis and a leathercloth-covered top plate.
There was also a new PSU (below) echoing the form of the deck. It used toroidal transformers instead of EI types in the same arrangement as the 3D.
After overseeing the changeover to S-O, Mike left to pursue his own interests, but within a couple of years he and his wife had separated, the farm was sold, and Mike went to live in Kilbirnie, in Ayrshire, where he was working on a new deck. A short while later, in 1991, he passed away suddenly at the age of 47.
Source-Odyssey continued until the company closed in early 1992 after D. Lamb and Co. Ltd, which had provided finance, went into liquidation.
