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In Unity, there can only be one audio listener active in a scene at any given time. The audio listener functions similarly to a microphone; it captures audio from all audio sources within the scene. This design choice is made to avoid confusion in audio mixing and panning. When there are multiple audio listeners in a scene, Unity will typically only recognize the first one it encounters and ignore any others, leading to unintended audio behavior.

Having a single audio listener ensures consistent and understandable audio output for the player, allowing for seamless gameplay experiences. This approach simplifies spatial audio calculations, as the engine has a defined point of reference for sound attenuation and 3D positioning. If developers need to switch between different audio listeners, they should deactivate or enable them programmatically, ensuring only one is active at a time for any particular scene.