Unless you know of some collector hoarding a copy of the 70mm of empire you will never see it again.

Very few had the luxury or good fortune to see it. And now thanks to Lucas you never will.

Because even if some film archive has a copy and wants to screen it they cannot by some strange Law that forces them to show the 1997 special edition.

I would not be in the least bit surprised if the original magnetic elments are completely deteriorated on the soundtracks in Lucas vault, or that he hunted down and had the remaining prints destroyed.

The 70mm of the special edition apparently was just a blow up and not specail in the least except for having a new six channel dts mix. Neither are on dvd and are also lost to time.

I wonder what the difference between that and the 5.1 ac3 on the special edition laserdiscs.

I remember the bass rumbled your seat in the theater.

I remember very clearly an immersive 3D sound environment where you fealt like you were actually in the middle of the dogfight as Luke attacks the death star.

Then you get the 2004 redone audio and none of the above are to be heard. really no mix at all. The sound levels on the sound effects are off the scale and the music dialed way down in swapped surround channels. The dialogue is also almost muffled. Ben Burtt's new mix, is a giant stinking turd.