But I have to disagree with you there. While there is no substitute for a good song, melody and lyric writing, (possibly even more so in chipmusic), good equipment and the skills to use it bring alot to the table.
For music outside of chip and lofi, I'd say get the best money can buy.
I think you're 100% wrong. It doesn't matter what gear you have across the board. U can make a great recording using a cassette tape recorder, and an SM-57 and i can do the same using a C12 and a MM1200 multitrack. Will the C12 and 1200 sound better sonically.. of course.. but i bet if the subject matter that i was recorded was good enough that who ever was listening would be more distracted with the greatness of the song to really care about the audio quality differences.
It's not what you have or dont have. it's how you use what you have! be it for lo-fi music or hi-fi.