To me more money spent on production doesn't necessarily result in better sounding production. Sometimes big money production makes the music too polished and that doesn't suit all kinds of music. Bands like Muse need that polished huge sounding production, because that's their thing, but there are some of my favorite albums that I probably wouldn't even like if the production was more polished. Sometimes the lo-fi production actually benefits the music and gives it more character. Old ska records are a great example. I like the sound on many of those old Jamaican records and I love The Specials, but I've got a CD with old Desmond Dekker songs re-recorded(in the '90s) by the man himself with The Specials as his backing band, but the production is just crap, although it's definitely been done with more modern equipment and it sounds more polished. I'm pretty sure that if those versions had been the first versions of those songs, they wouldn't be regarded as classics like the old original versions are. Sometimes it's better with "warts and all" as it sometimes gives the record more charm. Sometimes poor production makes the record sound crappy, but I've got loads of records on my shelves that sound more charming because they are not all that polished. Some records you can immediately recognize from the way it sounds and sadly that's getting rare with many of the big money releases these days.