The Chinese Room

Like you said, I notice a humongous difference between the two recordings. Not only does the second recording sound far away, but you can hear some background noise, and the vocals sound muffled, whereas the first recording sounds very nice and clear. Also, I like the photo you uploaded.

The first one is pretty good, it is clear and loud. When I listened to it, I will not be distracted by other things. But I like the second one better, the second one only pick up the reading voice, not other sounds like breathing. Since it is not very loud, it sounds more soothing and comfortable. It is like a audio story that I can listen before going to bed, very relaxing.

The first one makes it seem you are right there talking and this was a recorded conversation. But the second one like commented previously is like you are being read a story which can be enjoyable in a different sense.

There was a large difference in the recordings with the first one being very clear and loud and the other was competing with the other noises in the background. The first recording was very soothing and definitely sounded like I was listening to an audio book. But when I listened to the second recording, I was distracted by the other sounds in the background.