Copper has an exchange program with selected magazines, where we share articles between publications. This one's from Canada's PMA Magazine.
A journal pulses with ink and intent as a listener records the thousand-hour unraveling of sound.
The light in the room felt ancient – pulsing, as if it had traveled since the birth of the universe only to end its journey here. Time stretched, thinned, and pooled across the room like an afterimage of what was and will be. A chair sat in the center, as if left behind by memory itself. At its feet, a journal lay open – pages curled, ink still vibrating faintly with intent. The Burn-In Chronicles.
Hour 1 – Initial Excitation
Signal: pink noise, 24-bit/192kHz. Volume set to 72.3 dB SPL.
Room temperature: 23°C. Humidity: 42% RH. Allegedly ideal for polymer relaxation, though I suspect that’s audiophile folklore.
Bass is a bit tight. Treble feels shy. The soundstage exists, technically, but barely – like a floor plan for a room that hasn’t been built.
Not listening critically yet. That would be premature. The cones are, after all, still strangers to my house – like a recently adopted foster cat, crouched behind the subwoofer, waiting to decide if it trusts me.
I’ve got gloves on. Not strictly necessary, but they help me feel intentional.
Cables are in. Levels locked. The pink noise hums softly, like the system clearing its throat.
This is how it begins.
Hour 10 – Early Shifts
There’s a faint opening in the midrange – like a door creaking open, unsure whether to reveal something or just let in a draft.
The right speaker exhales more freely than the left. It’s subtle, but undeniable. I assign them genders. She breathes. He resists.
Tonight, I cover them with a blanket. Warmth encourages bonding. Driver intimacy is important.
They’re warming up – physically, emotionally, spiritually. I think they’re beginning to trust me.
Hour 50 – Psychoacoustic Bloom
Thunderstorms now play on loop. The woofers must learn fear if they are to understand depth.
The soundstage has expanded – by at least half a meter, subjectively, and possibly metaphysically.
The cones remember. There’s a thousand-yard flutter in the midrange now – a tremble, like something saw too far into the waveform.
My DAC feels cold. Not hostile, just…withholding. Like it’s been talking about me behind my back.
Hour 100 – The Revelation of the Room
The room has begun to participate. The walls flex. The air listens.
I rearrange furniture hourly now – liberating trapped harmonics from beneath the ottoman.
Phantom bass notes bloom in corners. Not heard. Not measured. Only…felt.
The speakers hum softly, even when unplugged. Especially when unplugged.
Power spikes coincide with moments of deep focus. As if the system is learning desire.
I’ve stopped opening the blinds. The sound prefers darkness.
Hour 250 – The Schism
The left refuses to image. I play her silence, looped. Sometimes love is subtraction.
The right gets Gregorian chants. He needs humility before he can center.
The sound is no longer passive. It listens back.
I quote myself aloud: “True neutrality requires devotion.”
The neighbors complain. I explain, gently but firmly, that this is for the greater frequency balance of mankind.
They do not understand. Few do.
Hour 500 – The Sonic Ascension
The soundstage no longer exists in space. It folds inward, then outward – something is happening beyond geometry.
During low‑frequency sweeps, the woofers emit a faint light. Not bright. Nor natural. Just…aware. Perhaps this is the elusive sonic third eye the forums spoke of.
When I walk between them, the imaging collapses around me like a magnetic curtain. I feel observed, as though my resonance is being matched to an ancient Sumerian chord.
The system listens. I simply audition.
Hour 999 – The Convergence
Sleep is a forgotten codec. The logs no longer record; they testify.
The speakers communicate through subsonic pulses now – messages I feel more than hear.
Frequencies below zero Hertz murmur in shapes I almost recognize. The house vibrates in agreement.
Electricity is obsolete. The speakers have unplugged themselves and now draw current from conviction alone.
All meters rest at infinity. The needles have given up.
It is almost time.
Hour 1000 – The Great Unveiling
The cones are still. Yet I hear everything.
The speakers no longer emit sound. They simply are.
The house resonates at a fundamental frequency of forgiveness – low, constant, eternal.
Light pours from the woofers like liquid dawn. The ceiling dissolves into light.
My living room becomes a cathedral, nay, a launchpad to the sonic horizon.
I step forward. Dimensional doors open – basslines folding like origami into starlight, tweeters spilling galaxies of treble so fine they etch the soul.
Every album ever recorded plays at once. Perfectly balanced. Perfectly clear.
I see Bach nod at Daft Punk. Orpheus shaking hands with Bowie.
Time becomes a waveform. Space resolves into a suspended chord.
I am the listener. I am the speaker. I am the sound.
Hour 10,000 – The Final Resonance
There used to be a room here. I faintly remember walls, ceilings, the dull geometry of comfort.
Once, there was carpet beneath my feet and air that needed conditioning. Now there is only equilibrium.
Matter hums. Light sustains.
The cones have forgotten motion. Their silence is absolute, yet every frequency is contained within it.
What was once signal has become presence. What was once music has become matter.
The woofers dream in wavelengths beyond translation. Their lullaby bends the laws that once described them.
Time, ever dutiful, folded into itself. The notion of hours and days collapsed into a single sustained note.
A faint memory of my physical form stirs – a ripple in the stillness.
I remember calling myself The Listener.
Now I am become sound, the resonance of worlds.
2025 PMA Magazine. All rights reserved.
Header image: AI image courtesy of PMA Magazine.
