yoda-sama said:

What I'm wondering is in what aspects exactly does it best it? ...did they somehow mess up how things sound in general; are the audio channels perhaps messed up, or something sound weird throughout, etc.?

I think an audio guy might have a more technically accurate description of what they did, but in 2004, they really screwed up the audio globally, and they never really undid it. It's really screwed up for sure, but I can't say which knobs the audio guy couldn't stop messing with. All I know is they should have fired him for the 2006 DVDs, and they appear to have promoted him so he could do the Blu-rays. The 97 mix wasn't bad, except for the SE changes.