This paper presents an exploratory mixed reality prototype investigating how low-cost spatial audio and XR technologies may already enable partially believable augmented reality experiences. Rather than pursuing maximal realism across all modalities, the project relied on selective auditory realism, intentionally degraded sounds and visuals, and progressive perceptual trust building in order to create plausible auditory events within a mixed reality environment. Participants were introduced to a fictional experimental protocol progressively constructing increasingly dense auditory reconstruction around them. At the end of the experience, all virtual reconstructions abruptly disappeared, leaving participants alone in the now silent physical room, revealing the extent to which virtual events had progressively contaminated their perception of reality. Qualitative observations suggest that coherent multimodal staging and expectation shaping play an important role in perceptual acceptance alongside rendering realism itself. Beyond the presented prototype, the project highlights how current XR and spatial audio tools already enable new forms of immersive narrative experiences based on persistent ambiguity between reality and virtual reconstruction.
