About Black Lion Audio
Chicago has a rich cultural heritage based on a strong work ethic and a no-nonsense approach towards life. We at Black Lion Audio feel that this is reflected in our dedication and approach to sound quality. We work extremely hard on every aspect of our designs, modifications, and customer service, and make every effort to be efficient and timely in doing so.
We started Black Lion Audio to help people involved in audio reproduction and reinforcement upgrade the sound quality of their equipment without spending a lot of money. We're convinced that great-sounding equipment doesn't necessarily have to be expensive, but often just needs to be designed properly.
Although our focus has primarily been on modifications, we are now also placing emphasis on our own boutique equipment designed and built right here in Chicago. It is our vision to create an excellent product (both in design and performance) and deliver it to you at an exceptional price.
Our approach to manufacturing is very simple. We don't operate on an enormous scale nor use giant machinery to mass-produce any of our products; we do it all in-house and all by hand. Due to our avoidance of toxic chemical washes and pollutants during assembly, we are able to maintain small-scale processes and be more environmentally friendly than large-scale electronics manufacturers.
We don't have much of a promotional budget, in fact we rely mostly on word of mouth. You probably won't see us at NAMM, AES or other trade shows. We're simply not interested in that. We just want to make great-sounding equipment and sell it at a great price that even the small guy can afford. We know that if we focus on the basics and work hard, the rest will take care of itself. As a result, we've begun to attract a very loyal following.
Why Order From Us?
Over the last few years, we've built a reputation for providing customers with the sort of sound quality normally found in equipment that costs thousands of dollars more than what we charge. Our work has been used for projects on every major record label and countless independent ones. It's been used on television shows and commercials. It's been used by major audio software companies to record sample libraries and provide customer demonstrations. We've done work for Grammy and Academy Award winning engineers as well as major studios in LA and NY.
We're aware of some folks in certain recording forums that try to portray us as a flimsy 'smoke and mirrors' operation, because they're simply not able to understand how we provide such quality for the prices we do. The only way that a small company such as ours can achieve the things we have is by working hard, providing excellent value, and delivering on promises. This is what we're committed to, and we will continue to develop affordable, high-performance products for our customers that strongly compete with over-priced premium brands.
Ordering
Black Lion Audio is a small company. There are 11 of us that work out of a warehouse-style loft space on the north side of Chicago (twelve, if you count our cat). The forms of payment we accept are credit card, paypal, or money order. Shipping is done through UPS (international shipments via USPS Global EMS), and there are few exceptions to this. Depending upon how busy we are, some items can take as long as 2-3 business days to ship, although this is not typical. If you have any questions, always feel free to call or email us. We often are able to reply to emails within 24 hours.
We are happy to accommodate customers outside of the US, but please be aware that you will be responsible for all duties and taxes that your country imposes on inbound goods. There is no exception to this, so please don't ask us to do something illegal. Forging customs documents is punishable by a $40,000 fine and a year in federal prison. We want your business, but we aren't interested in breaking the law in order to obtain it.