I haven't been on the site in a while. Looks like a bunch of stuff about the Blurays has finally surfaced, and really none of it has been unexpected. I'm pleasantly surprised that they've acknowledged a few mistakes and corrected them, but the re-use of the 2004 masters with a few changes added on top rather than going to the trouble of a new scan shows the general laziness and complacency we've come to expect from LFL.
As far as the audio is concerned, I'm quite convinced that the new mix has followed exactly the same path as the video: it's just the 2004 version with a few edits and tweaks piled on top of it. Sure, some of the most obvious defects have apparently been taken care of, such as the flipped music imaging in the rear channels and the missing score during the X-wing dive and so forth, but that doesn't change the fact that it sounds like garbage on the whole. The sound in the ANH clips linked to in this thread all seems to be identical to the 2004 version as far as I can tell. What tips me off? Sound effects which originally were smoothly and unobtrusively integrated stand out and call too much attention to themselves, the dialogue has this weird over-processed sound that doesn't blend in with any of the other elements, the music tends to be buried in the mix, and the general feel of it is just "wrong" in the same way as the dvd version.
I can tell you right now that Matthew Wood is full of crap, and that he actually hasn't a clue what the movies ought to sound like. He loves the fact that the R2 canyon scene is now completely quiet, where the original was brittle and full of hiss? Well, what that actually means is that he noise-reduced the living hell out of every single sound effect in the movie in order to get it that silent. None of the sound effects in the 2004 mix have any high frequency response whatsoever! To compensate for this, they pumped up the mid-bass to extreme levels, and this leaves the entire movie sounding muffled and distorted, even the parts that managed to avoid more severe screw-ups. The whole thing is an unlistenable mess, and I am quite certain that the Bluray version is going to be almost exactly the same, despite their claims of having done it over again.
Actually, I don't think Wood has ever even heard the 70mm version, because I listened to them all after reading that interview and his comment about the canyon rings utterly false. Sure, the mono track is harsh and full of noise, because let's face it, the Academy mono system is ancient and low fidelity. The stereo mix is better but still pretty hissy. But in the 1993 mix, which as we know was sourced directly from the 70mm printmaster, there is barely a hiss to be heard in this scene. Just a little bit, completely natural for an older analogue recording, but nothing obtrusive or objectionable. His other comments about them lacking channel separation and so forth also lead me to think that he didn't bother to listen to the 70mm version, because his obvious disdain for the original mixes comes off as extremely uninformed and insulting to say the least. He's evidently completely unaware that the 70mm mix had far superior dynamic range and fidelity, not only to the 35mm mixes but also to his supposedly wonderful remixed rubbish.
Even though I despise the SE's and would not buy these Blurays myself, it still infuriates me that the only legally obtainable version of the movie will be one that sounds so execrably awful. "He knows the soundtrack so well he can instantly tell when something doesn't sound right?" Puh-lease! Don't make me laugh. I've never even been inside a recording studio and I know a damn sight more about what this film ought to sound like, and that's just sad. I guess the acoustics of Lucas' anal cavity are such that he can't hear how he's actually a completely tone-deaf buffoon, monkeying around with things that were already near-perfect in the first place. Whatever . . .
