The Griff said:

AFAIK, the 5.1 remix has been the only available English-language option on all DVD and BD releases. The LDs were mono.

If you wanna sample the difference, perhaps try playing one of the other languages for the first five minutes (until the credits finish) and during the rooftop shoot-out (under the 'Jesus Saves' sign). That should give you an idea of the overall differences between the original and remixed tracks.

I see, modern gun shots sound effects I presume, I actually own it on LD and haven't upgraded yet, so I haven't been exposed to the re-mix. But I can imagine how unfitting the new sound effects may be. I absolutely don't care if they make these unnecessary re-mixes, it's when they replace the original mix it becomes a rewriting of film history. There's no single reason why they cannot include the original mixes alongside the re-mix, are the guys who do the re-mixes afraid to get their work compared with the originals or what!? It's damn tiring.

About the mix on Raiders of the Lost Ark, everything point towards the 70mm blowups being originally in Dolby format 42, which means; no split surrounds. So a 4.1 configuration seems actually more appropriate for it, but I cannot complain on the DVD audio, it sounds great IMO. It will be interesting to see how they treat the audio on the Blu-ray release.

Another re-mix to be aware of; the New Line Reg 1 DVD of Twin Peaks - Fire Walk With Me only provided a 5.1 re-mix. In the partyland "Welcome to Canada" sequence, the Center dialogue is about 8-10 db louder than in the original Dolby Stereo mix, in the re-mix you can hear the dialogue so clearly that the subtitles become completely unnecessary. In the scene where Cooper is introduced at Philadelphia, a cymbal hit is missing, and the scene at the end where the monkey says "Judy", it's mixed approximately 6 db louder than in the Dolby Stereo mix. Really need to rip the Dolby Stereo from the LD sometime.