I do want to say that, while in my own opinion FFIX had the best soundtrack of the PS1 era, all the soundtracks are brilliantly fantastic. So this is a measurement in fractions, in nanometers, not in miles. The difference between them is not all that significant. FFVI-FFX Uematsu was in his prime. Or perhaps, during that stretch of games he made most of the music which I personally like best. The PS1 era lies smack dab in the middle of that. And actually, my favorite songs to play all actually come from FFVIII's soundtrack (exceptions being Terra's song and To Xanarcand).