Audiolines was an amazing experience.

I found them on the net and to my surprise their location was only a few miles from my house (on the northside of Chicago) so I decided to stop by and check them out. I was thinking about upgrading my DJ system and I wanted to make sure I was making the right choices.

Located in a huge warehouse and tucked away on a safe side street . . . I walked in to look around.

Damn, where did this place come from? It was like walking into a Pro Audio "Costco". All they needed was a greeter and shopping carts. Isles and isles of JBL, EV, Mackie, Digidesign, Numark, Chauvet, American DJ and more.

I was approached by a friendly man named Alex who welcomed me and pointed me to a sales guy named Robert. Alex explained that on September 1st, a new corporation had bought the business and is upgrading it's website, showroom and the way audiolines.com did business.

I met Robert (a softspoken salesman) who said he had been selling DJ and pro audio for about a million years. He also shared that he had a second career as a successful DJ in the hispanic community. He asked what I was looking for and then starting telling me little known features of the Pioneer, JBL, and other brands I had mentioned. I told him I was shopping and he explained that due to the volume of sales that audiolines.com has reached, coupled with their low overhead, he could save me alot of money when I was ready to purchase.

I asked him about the "online" reviews about B-stock baiting and switching . . . he laughed. He went on the explain that audiolines.com has never tried to use bait and switch tactics. He claimed that due to the fast pace of their business, sometimes a B-stock factory deal is gone by the time audiolines tries to grab it. If that happened, audiolines salesguys are authorized to offer customers a new product (not b-stock) for a few dollars more. This seemed like a great offer.

When I asked him about switching customers to other products? . . he laughed and asked me, Why would we do that when we are leagally franchised for over 150 lines of the major brands and stock almost 2 million dollars in inventory?

He then proceeeded to have a stock man set up all the products that I had been inquiring about and brought me back to the warehouse to listen. The warehouse was huge so I got to hear the gear I was thinking about buying. Yes, I got to crank it up.

I had to have this system so I made the purchase. They took my charge card, asked me what cables I needed and helped me load my SUV.

Since my first purchase, I had returned to buy a new wireless mic system (that is guaranteed to work next year) other dealers couldn't/didn't explain the new white spaces laws to me.

I even met the new owner Bernie (a big guy who claims to have been a DJ for the past 36 years) who welcomed me back to his business as an old friend. He explained that buying audiolines.com was his exit strategy from being a radio and finally mobile DJ. Nice guy (kinda looks like Paul Sr. from Orange County Choppers).

I had a great experience, got some great gear at stoopid low prices. Also I noticed that many of the 10 other sales guys spoke spanish fluently.

This was a big store with a small store feel.

I'll go back again and you should visit them also.