Before I got a MarkIII SMS, I also didn't like the FM music. But that was influenced by my shock at hearing Phantasy Star in the Saturn PS Coll. for the first time way back when and the occasional emulated SMS game.
Once I got the real hardware and a few decent sounding games though, I've come to love good FM music. Miracle Waariors/Haja No Fuin is still the best I've come across(R-Type is
very cool), although the PSG soundtrack is still one of the best as well.
I'm still biased towards PSG, since I've been playing North American SMS games regularly for two decades now. But the MarkIII FM sound is great when it's used in a good way. Just like the Megadrive/Genesis.
Its definitely nice to have the choice of two versions of the same soundtrack in a game. And good FM sfx sound really cool too.
I have a Gamboy, -a Koreon SMS that is pretty much identical to the MarkIII SMS(it even has the same Space Harrier demo when you start it with no game), but is missing the FM sound. I use it to play MarkIII games when I feel like hearing the PSG sound.
I have a Tototek SMS to MarkIII converter I use play English SMS games with FM sound. This is the easiest and cheapest($15(?) for the converter) way to get to hear lots of SMS games with FM sound. Not all games work, support FM, even when the original version did.
So far the only way I've managed to get to hear the FM soundtrack to Wonderboy III is by playing Turma de Monica with the converter. WBIII doesn't work and I still have not found even a picture or a rom of a japanese version.
Unfortunately, WBIV doesn't support FM.
I think a lot of people have a case of "You can't get this in the US so therefore I like the Japan-only version better because I am teh 1337".
do you talking about me?
sorry, just tried to explain my expierence i had to day for the first time. i owned a sms for several years back in those days, and i think, no..i can say with a clear conscience that the fm-tunez sounds a lot better than that what i've heard back then. just switched on the system and the lovely space harrier bgm was such tangentially, i was almost crying 
He definitely wasn't talking about
you.
I do think that Joe Redifer's personal biases/preferences turn him off to the MarkIII FM just as mine once did. Maybe if no one cared about the MarkIII FM sound and never compared it to the Genesis and no one ever dissed the Genesis' FM, he'd be more optimistic towards it?
