Here's my take on hype, equipment, etc...:
I've heard a lot of CDs that were hyped to death, utilized all the best equipment, etc, yet still sounded bad. On the other hand, I've heard plenty of low budget releases that were probably done with whatever equipment was around that sound great. My own equipment is pretty low budget, but (if I do say so myself) a lot of what I've done (vinyl transfers) has sounded great.
I honestly think equipment means very little compared with the decisions made in using said equipment.