The closest I've ever got to this has been using a 120-degree pickup Sony ECM-MS907 condenser mic and a minidisc recorder. Using Sony's closed over-ear headphon

The closest I've ever got to this has been using a 120-degree pickup Sony ECM-MS907 condenser mic and a minidisc recorder. Using Sony's closed over-ear headphones (the most expensive I could buy at the time), I recorded several group gatherings. On playback through the headphones later, I instinctively turned my head at frequent intervals, because I couldn't tell that I wasn't listening to real people near me. It was a really weird brain-fakeout effect. This was all consumer-level hardware at the time so I'm sure it's very possible today to achieve the general effect, though probably with different equipment. Personally I'm not sure I'd want that from an audiobook but it could be cool.