This conversation is so awesome and important. Thank you all again for sharing. I hope that we are learning much from each other. Also, been there and done something similar. I guess are passion for the sound is too large sometimes.
A NAD C368 integrated amplifier. It was a badly designed and poorly tested heap of junk. It sounded absolutely fine but the systems within it didn’t appear to be tested in any way for interoperability. It worked perfectly out of the box until it did the expected software update. There were a least three separate firmwares in the box (BluOS, Network and amplifier itself). Each has its own download and update procedure. One of them requires the network card to be pulled out the back before updating!
Shortly after the BluOS firmware was updated the amplifier started freezing on switch on and would switch itself off after about 20 minutes for no reason. Also, the BluOS card lost connectivity to the network (and Roon of course), requiring a hard reboot to clear it.
NAD support were very responsive, explaining that it was indeed the recent BluOS update that had broken the amplifier and that a fix was in development. I had lost faith in the product by then and obtained a refund (Sevenoaks HIFi in UK, very helpful and apologetic, perhaps they are used to it with NAD kit). I foresaw that further updates down the line could easily keep breaking the amplifier if no interoperability testing was being done.
I did discover a few things whilst suffering with this amplifier. The BluOS forum was very hostile to any reported Roon issues. It was always Roon’s fault it seemed, according to them. Also, the NAD amplifiers use plug in cards for functionality. These come in various hardware revisions, so make sure you know what hardware revision is in the back of any NAD kit you buy. It might be the old version being flogged off cheaply.
As a result I will never touch a NAD or BluOS product ever again.
I had two of those amps powering a pair of ML CLX - I found them to be excellent and loved them - only parted with them because the manufacturer passed away and I thought there might be issues down the road - but I thought they were excellent amps
During lockdown, 4 years ago, I bought Focal Celestee Headphones without being able to listen to them first. Expensive mistake! Lovely to look at and very comfortable to wear, but the audio quality didn’t match the price tag (and neither did the ClearMG that I borrowed after lockdown). Fortunately, I was able to sell them on - and home-auditioned/purchased Focal Stellia that did meet my expectations.
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Really?! That’s very helpful, thanks. A few years earlier than you, I settled on a pair of Senheiser HD 800 S after almost buying Focal, which got such positive reviews. So that’s good to know. Thanks!
Regret is a strong word but I wish I’d never fussed with a pre-amp in my system…though without doing so I’d never have known I prefer no preamp to the two that I tried. Neither impacted the sound quality, good or bad, and I had no need for the increased gain nor input switching ability. Fortunately, sold both for what I paid or just a touch more.
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I only regret what I didn’t buy - I should have snapped up twice as many vinyl than I did when everyone was worshiping CDs.
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Are you sure? Vinyl was terrible quality in the 80s. Thin warped and noisy pressings made from recycled vinyl.
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Yup ~ not all were and I have plenty of the thin ones that sound great today and did when
I bought them in the 80s. Far better than the early CD sound in my opinion. People were giving away box sets of iron maiden, pink Floyd, black sabbath etc.
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Maybe 8x to 10x would be more reasonable given how much more expensive it is now 
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Hi SpinalTap,
I too purchased the Celestee and I was disappointed, as well. Not a very good price-to-performance ratio.
Good question!
None at the time of purchase, but with the benefit of insight, I strongly regret a couple of Devialet products over their lack of durability for the (hefty) cost: a Phantom Gold that stopped working after two years and the Gemini earbuds that were always plagued by battery issues.
On the sound quality side, they were good products, though I have since realised that I don’t enjoy Devialet’s sound signature as much as other brands (often far less pricy as well).
I have the Mg’s, I didn’t like them until I started using Oratory1990’s PEQ settings now I love them.
I regret buying my Kef LS50W2s due to the firmware updates they receive and are applied with no user intervention and NO WAY TO DECLINE !!!
More than once Kef have applied an update that screwed something up badly, the one last year disabled the primary sub out.
I will never again buy a product that receives updates like this and it’ll be a cold day in hell before I buy the brand again.
Not sure that Purchase is the right word but the installation in my house that keeps asking me to turn the music down is often a source of frustration if not actual regret 
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Hi Loup,
I own the Devialet Phantom I. I use them primarily as speakers for home theater. Going on three years now without issues. The few times I’ve called customer support, they’ve been very helpful. Maybe give customer support a try. I hope this helps.
Not really “regret,” because it is a beautiful piece of electronics, but the TEAC AP-505 Hypex-based amp was too expensive event at the sale price that I paid for it.
Don’t judge me but I had a set of Bose 901’s that sounded phenominal at my Girlfriend’s cottage, but were absolute trash at my place. I figured that if they sounded that vastly different in those 2 locations, I didn’t want them and took them back. So I guess not really a regret but very close…
The only other regret I have was also back when in my 20’s I got rid of probably half of my vinyl, because I was buying CD’s which were ‘perfect’ sounding, at the time…FUUUUUU#####K, that was a dumb move…凸ಠ益ಠ)凸 Still kick myself for that one.
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I know there is a whole debate on the value of cable quality and sound reproduction. I cannot attest to any inherent value in expensive cables. What I can attest to is that cables of higher quality; e.g., Electech cables are certainly more pliable, durable, and maybe better sounding than 95% of stock iem cables. This is a roundabout way of leaning into the topic of more purchases I regret. I bought the Effect Audio Fusion cable and it was bad out of the box., definitely a QC issue. What was worse, is direct customer support wasn’t in a hurry to make it right. Luckily, I purchased from what is probably one of the best online dealers there is, Bloom Audio and they did make it right.