The Special Edition Version seems to be a minimized version of the Studio instruments but if you compare the same instrument in both versions you will find that the samples and the sound is not the same. Special Edition seems more refined with more definition and more rounded.
The company says that the are the same recordings but something else happens here.

Tell me your thoughts

 

The bulk of the content for Special Editions is drawn from the Studio series libraries. The SE have fewer articulations, and fewer RRs and dynamic layers on most instruments. Also, most of the SE content is not sampled chromatically, so the tonal depth isn't the same as the full Studio versions. VSL did mix the SE content to compensate for those differences, and did a very good job.

For someone wanting to save on hard drive space, the full Special Edition set is a very useable collection.

 

Doesn't seem to be the same samples. For example check the piccolo flute at the high notes of two libraries. The one have the breaths of the player but the other don't.

 

My understanding... the Special Editions are down sampled and edited mixes of content taken from the Studio series. While they draw from the Studio Series recordings, the SE products themselves, and the sample sets they contain, are not identical to the corresponding Studio Series libraries. VSL clearly markets them as different but related products.