What's the most overrated or overpriced piece of equipment you own, have owned or come by?

My regrets have not been in what I have bought but in what I have sold. 

Luckily I've never owned a regrettable piece of kit. But I do research the heck out of something and nearly always audition before buying. I also avoid flavor-of-the-month kinds of gear.

The most trouble-prone piece I ever owned was a Thorens TD-125 Mk.2 turntable. The electronics were evidently malfunctioning, causing intermittent "motorboating". I took it to the warranty service center many times, the problem never being found or solved. The table would never exhibit the motorboating at the center, of course. I was very young, and ending up getting rid of it. Now, I would demand the whole electronic circuit board be replaced. Why that wasn’t just done to solve the problem I have no idea.

One poster said no one here ever admits to owning Bose.

I own a pair of Bose noise cancelling ear buds, which I use on airplanes. And they are EXCELLENT for what they are designed to do.

Are they high fidelity? I have no clue, but they do cancel out a ton of airplane engine droning, and makes flying more enjoyable. Not only not overpriced for what they do (costs less than a decent interconnect), they actually work as well. 

On on the other hand, is there any Bose equipment in my home setup? Uh, no. 

I do not have a single regret.

I have been really fortunate in my audio purchases, not a single one I regret.

Having been in the retail end of the high-end audio business a long time ago, there were items that had high margins, like speakers (usually 50% profit margins for the dealer) and certain accessories, like cables, which had even greater margins.

Since I discovered Audiogon, I've purchased about half of my equipment from sellers on the site, finding good values on current models, great sellers who have accurately described the items they sell, so when I "flip" something, I don't take a bath on the ownership.

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Every item that I've owned that cost $5k and up was worth every penny.  Even at nearly $10k for my preamp when it was new, I was thrilled to own it with nary a hint of buyers remorse.  Before I purchased it, I couldn't conceive of ever paying that much for a piece of audio equipment.
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I must agree that every brand fades away if it comes to hi-end cables that will occupy definitely top shelves of such hierarchy excluding perhaps very . That's where you can pay 5...6 figures and get in return maximum 2.

No one is willing to admit to owning Bose on this site.  That company wins the award hands down!

Before I would say I would ask to confirm that public stonings are illegal or at minimum still considered to be in bad taste.   :^)

Pretty much every commercial audio cable I ever purchased(relative to DIY efforts.)

Rega P3 turntable.

Never had any only get great value stuff.