@Beber: Yeah, plenty of versions yet to be checked out, I'm afraid. You don't possess that one by chance? Maybe I buy some "first DVD release" and "shoot in the dark" for the sake of comparison like I already did with "Terminator 2", "Se7en" and "Fight Club".

In the meantime, I read through the thread at avsforums, kk650 mentioned - there, one user states:

"BTW, the LFE is also mixed about 10db hotter than typical reference LFE and previous DVDs. It can be very distracting especially in the 40hz and below range."

This would confirm my theory that the Blu-ray has been artificially "pumped up" not only on the video, but on the audio part as well. :(