"Playback" is definitively a whole different animal than "sound created when someone sings a song." I guess because the contexts are wildly different. When you listen to someone singing a song, in real time, you block out the background radiation, willfully, consciously, subconsciously.

When a sound is recorded "in a sea of silence" with gear that renders it realistically, its impact is just naturally heightened. "Heightened impact" is the goal everyone strives for. Less-than-ideal spaces will impart all their funky discoloration to a track.

Finally, the blend of frequencies in an ideal mix is a mysterious combo that ideally triggers a reaction in the listener, and the only way to "get there" is to have some kind of internal gyroscope that alerts you when you're in the vicinity, whether you're drifting near or far, and when you've nailed it.

That's all I got!