Yeah, all of my mixes were made primarily from the 1993 laserdisc PCM tracks, so they have the full dynamic range and power of those versions. Add the custom LFE channel derived from the special editions on top of that and you've got a seriously awesome sounding mix for each film. ;)

I don't know for sure that the Empire GOUT came from a vhs master source, but its restricted dynamics compared to the laserdisc make it a likely possibility. Combined with the non-defeatable 4 db reduction in total volume that comes from the Dialnorm parameter in the AC3 stream, the result sounds very anemic, much less powerful than it should.

I don't think the other two films are dynamically compressed as Empire is, but they do still have the Dialnorm reduction, which again makes them sound weaker than the laserdiscs at any given volume setting. Raising the gain by 4 db to compensate when playing the GOUT will narrow the discrepancy, making any difference solely the result of lossy compression encoding. Obviously Empire still won't equal the original, but the difference won't seem as drastic. Regardless, the laserdisc versions are certainly preferable since no adjustments need to be made to achieve the best sound.