Surely, it's all down to your ears. It's only worth investing in expensive gear if you yourself can hear the difference. Then you will feel better about yourself, more confident, a better player (which of course makes you a better player).

When shopping for instruments, I will only try gear I am prepared to afford, then listen hard. On two occasions, I have bought lesser-named less expensive gear because it sounded better to me or fitted better into my set-up. When I'm not shopping, I'll try everything at all price ranges and occasionally fall in lust with a really expensive instrument, where I CAN hear the improvement..... but then I have a young family, a wife who is a struggling scribbler and a mortgage the size of the Brazililan National Debt.

What you hear is always the player plus the instrument. A poor instrument will sound better in the hands of an expert and a great instrument will sound even better.