hairy_hen said:

That music echo in the '77 stereo is rather strange, although it does have an interesting effect. I guess it's an early use of the surround channel in Dolby Stereo, but perhaps one reason they made the '85 mix was to tone down this element. Since it's delayed compared to the front channels, I don't think it would affect the imaging much, but I'm not sure.

Well, since the surround echo is a lower-volume mono fold-down of the music in the L/R channels, wouldn't it make the stereo field seem narrower if not properly matrixed, since it reduces the distinctness of the two channels?

But whether the stereo imaging of the music in the L/R of the '77 is as wide as the '85 - that we really can't know because all we have of the '77 is the LD's non-matrixed, non-Dolby analog stereo, just the straight LT/RT tracks in 2-channel.

Anything to say about my question about the "double" Death Star explosion sound in your 5.1, and whether that will be improved in the new version?