News

Post-Fire Future Unclear for Apollo Masters

Stereophile Staff  |  Feb 7, 2020

On February 6, our sister site AnalogPlanet.com reported the news of a three-alarm fire at the Banning, CA headquarters of Apollo Masters, a renowned manufacturer of ready-to-cut lacquers for use in the LP-mastering industry. The blaze reportedly burned for approximately three hours before being brought under control, during which time an adjacent highway was shut down.

Apollo Masters got its start in 1989, when its founders took advantage of Capitol Records' exit from the LP-mastering business: Apollo purchased Capitol's manufacturing equipment and existing stock of raw materials and moved them to nearby Banning, a city with an approximate population of 15,000. They have been doing a steady business since then, but as of this writing, Apollo's prospects are unclear, and the prognosis seems unrosy.

We recommend re-visiting AnalogPlanet for further updates on this developing and quite possibly tragic story.

COMMENTS
tonykaz's picture
Submitted by tonykaz on February 8, 2020 - 10:13pm

Phew, vinyl pellets are accelerants.

We should expect people to take a close look at Vinyl Pressing Plants and anticipate elaborate and expensive Fire remediation equipment improvements .

Expect prices for new 33.3 Vinyl Albums to increase and even an interruption in 2020's supply chain.

Fire scares Insurance People and building owners who have to answer to neighbor's concerns.

Tony in N.H.

Glotz's picture
Submitted by Glotz on February 10, 2020 - 11:13am

Starts with an 'F'!

Yes, why aren't these locations protected with sprinkler systems?? So utterly stupid...

BillK's picture
Submitted by BillK on February 13, 2020 - 12:33am

Because they weren't required when the building was built and are very expensive to retrofit.

X