Should I repair my Creek 4330 or replace it?

Here's my review of HiFi Heaven in Fairfax, VA.

HiFi Heaven might be the right place for some people. Not for me. I brought my Creek 4330 integrated amplifier in with a bad volume control (one channel had dropped out) even though I knew this wasn't an authorized repair shop for Creek equipment. That was a mistake I won't make again. Here's what happened next.

I paid for the repair and brought the amp home. After 10 hours of use, the same channel stopped working. I brought the amp back and Brett said he fixed a frayed wire on the volume control "caused by the technician." Hm, okay. Brought the amp home again.

A few days later the same channel went silent again. I asked Brett for his recommendation for an authorized repair shop. No reply this time or, for that matter, ever again.

After some research, I sent the amp to a repair shop in California. The Creek expert there tallied up everything HiFi Heaven had done wrong, writing that it was a "really bogus job" which "installed nonstandard parts causing additional failures." He removed the parts and fixed the amp. I sent Brett the invoice detailing these mistakes and asked for a refund. No reply. Frankly, I don't much care anymore. I've learned my lesson. My amp finally works and I won't make this mistake again.

Thanks for the follow-up. I'm glad the Creek is working well again. Not sure how long capacitors last, but when the time comes for your Creek, please check out "Kendeil" from Italy. I ordered from Greece the ones my Arcam Alpha 10 int. amp needed. Wow...what an improvement. ($40 total w/my own labor to install.) BTW, the Creek A42 I bought on Ebay arrived and it is a wonderful sounding compact amp. Definitely hear the class and pedigree. Good listening! Bill.

I had a bad experience buying a used Mac Receiver from Hi-Fi Heaven too. Had low volume issues and never was quite right. Bottom plate had been removed and many of the screws were missing. I ended up selling receiver to someone revealing the problem it had as I didn’t want to add anymore expense.

Hi jafant,

The Creek expert is Mitch Singerman. His name kept popping up in my research as a trusted and reliable repair guy and so I got in touch and described my bad experience at HiFi Heaven. He was wonderful to work with and did a fantastic repair job for a great price. I totally recommend him.