Anyone else's EVP recordings sound completely different on playback than when you first captured them?

Yeah this has happened to me a few times and it genuinely throws you off. First time I played something back I was convinced I heard a name, clear as anything, told my mate about it. Went back two days later and it just sounded like static with maybe a slight hiss. Couldn't find the "voice" at all.

Not sure if its our brains filling in gaps when we're in the moment and hyped up from a session, or if something else is going on. Read somewhere that emotional state can affect how we perceive audio, which would explain a lot to be honest.

But then theres also people who say the recordings themselves change, not just our perception of them. That's the bit I can't quite get my head around.

Has anyone actually done a proper comparison, like recorded the same clip twice within 24 hours to see if theres any difference in the waveform? Curious if anyone's gone that far with it or if I'm overcomplicating things.

@EdinburghOtter this happens all the time and I think part of it is expectation bias - once someone tells you what they heard, thats basically all you can hear on the second listen. Your brain fills in the gaps. But I've also read that some researchers think EVP recordings can actually shift depending on the playback device, something to do with compression artefacts in the audio. Has anyone tried playing the same file through different speakers or headphones to see if you get different results? I did this once with a recording from a local churchyard and I got three completely different interpretations from three people who hadnt spoken to each other about it.