I'm more of a sucker for FM Synthesis, so I'd like to have a real YMF262 or, like some of the later SoundBlaster 16s and most SoundBlaster AWE32s(models CT3900, CT3980, CT3780, just to name a few - the simplified SoundBlaster AWE32, the SoundBlaster 32, has a real YMF262 in ti), a YMF262 integrated within Creative's CT1747 combined YMF262/*something*(I believe the something is the YAC512 DAC and some ISA interface or something like that) chip, or even like my C-Media CMI8738, Avance Logic ALS4000 or HP AZT1008 with Aztech AZT2320 chipset, which either use a real YMF262 integrated within the chips or a YMF262 cloned so well there's no difference in the sound output aside from the notes not being held as long(that's common for ASIC implementations of an FM Synthesis chip, which is especially true on the Genesis since Sega removed the YM2612 when they brought along motherboard revision VA7 on the Genesis Model 1. It was replaced with an ASIC implementation of the YM2612, which has a higher sample rate and doesn't hold its notes as long as the real YM2612).
Don't really care too much about General MIDI, but I did get an AOpen AW32 Pro which uses an integrated Crystal wavetable alongside a Crystal CS4236B(lousy for FM Synthesis, but very good for digital sound) and the wavetable produces some pretty good sound. The one problem I noticed is some glitchy output from the left audio channel where I hear some very faint garbage notes mixed in with the actual General MIDI output.
I should snag a Yamaha or Roland wavetable for my OPTi 82C929A. Since with that sound card I can adjust the level of distortion in the FM Synthesis to my liking(from heavy distortion to none at all) and has a wavetable header(which the SoundBlaster Pro 2.0 lacks), a wavetable would make the sound card complete. Actually, I've found a few old computers for sale at a flea market. I might ask the booth owner to open up the computers so I can see what sound cards is in them(I'll exchange an AOpen PCI sound card for it since it's just a CMI8738 in disguise, which means really bad SoundBlaster compatibility). He let me see the insides of my newly-acquired Pentium 1 computer, so I'm pretty sure he wouldn't mind letting me see the internals of the other computers he has.
Creator of The Many Sounds of:, a collection of various DOS games played using different sound cards.