As for the 2004 remix, you guys are obviously totally right. The easiest explanation for me is that the infamous Loudness War made it into a film here. Everything is pushed to the max, with no proper respect for the dynamics or even the action of the film.

What's worse is that some of the original audio elements are clearly worse for wear, and thus we get muffled and harsh sounds pushed all the way up. At least the BD did correct some of the horrible ADR'ing (Tarkin and Leia's dialogue stuck out like a sore thumb on the DVD), but compared to the samles hairy_hen posted... well, there is no comparison!

Kinda funny how the 3D re-release will be accompanied by such flat and "two-dimensional" audio...