Once a week, I have lunch with my old prof, usually on a Friday, and we go to the same restaurant each time, frequently at the same table in the bar where, as we arrive, our cocktails are waiting for us. It's where we can talk quietly and not be overrun by loud music. Twice a month a group of middle-aged frat boys businessmen gather at the bar, make a terrific din for an half-hour or so, and then slope off for lunch at a round table which, by the time we leave, is awash with bottles and loud good humor.
So commonplace is noise and so inured are we to this constant companion it is easy to forget how much of what we hear is intentionally part of our environment – without wishing to be redundant, noise is designed into our world to the point where it's almost climatic.
At lunch with a friend last Saturday, the Celt's new iPhone app recorded a noise level of above 90dB (decibels) where we sat. On a comparison table 90 decibels is the equivalent of a train whistle from 500 feet and is also the point at which regular sustained exposure may cause permanent damage. For an occasional diner there is little danger of hearing damage until one takes into consideration other noise levels in everyday life: city traffic inside an automobile is averaged at 85 decibels and normal conversation at a distance of 3-5 feet is 60-70 decibels For the staff at these places exposure to high levels of noise is constant. What these figures indicate is not only how loud our environment has become but how delicate is our hearing.
The irony is, on Saturday, we commented how pleasant it was to lunch in, relatively speaking, a quieter environment.
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what confuses me is that restaurants PLAN for the noise. Gone are the days when white tableclothes, carpets, and curtains cushioned and quieted a restaurant in a hushed atmosphere as that is seen as 'stuffy'. For a restaurant to be successful it has to be LOUD and seem popular - if someplace looks crowded it MUST be good, right? Gone is anything which would absorb this money-making sound to be replaced with hard, sound reflecting surfaces. So uncomfortable making and why I nearly always eat at home!
ReplyDeleteArchitectDesign, thank you. My favourite restaurant is within one block of where I live, is walkable to (though I have been known to valet) and quiet with a garden. There is the occasional loud group but it's usually a celebration. Also, white tablecloths and proper waiters.
DeleteArchitectDesign, P.S. Apparently the noisier the restaurant, the more higher the sales of alcohol. Go figure.
DeleteOh, but it does cause damage, I am sorry to say. There is hard science on the effect of exposure based on decibel level and duration. 10-15 minutes at 100 decibels is what can be tolerated. After 10 minutes, the tiny cells in the cochlea are affected, hearing loss being noticeable after 30 precent of hearing in any given range is affected. Usually, a "notch" appears around 4K, which is where those with occupational deafness experience it—factory workers, and yes, opera singers. The thing to do is wear hearing protection, my favorite being Eytmotic, which are fitted to the ear, and do not damped higher frequencies which common foam ear plugs do, thus making it very hard to understand a conversation (sibilants are carried on higher frequencies).
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dangerousdecibels.org/education/information-center/decibel-exposure-time-guidelines/
Daniel, I have nothing more to add to what you write than to say thank you. I know from you how important your hearing is. Oh, and thank you for the link to Eytmotic.
DeleteBlue, I so agree with you about the noise level increasing in public places, especially restaurants. I'm writing another restaurant review where I address this very issue.
ReplyDeleteThe last time I was in London and had need to pop into Boots the chemist, I could not believe my ears. There it was, piped LOUD music. What a horrid experience. Who needs that in a busy shop where one already has a headache and has popped in to seek an appropriate cure? I recall making a comment to the security guard wondering if he could turn the music down. He sympathised with me but really I felt sorry for him having to work there.
Chronica Domus, thank you. Loud music is everywhere – even gas stations blare out music and advertising well into the night – and seems to be the least remarked form of pollution.
DeleteOh yes, loud music everywhere. I don't have my phone glued to my ear when I'm out and about, but occasionally I take a call or make one, and find it very difficult to find a place where I can hear what is being said by my caller. The Thais are generally a quiet-speaking group of people, but their tolerance for loud music everywhere is extraordinary. There is now a dreadful instance of advertising on LED screens at Skytrain stations - in the trains, on the platforms, on large billboards. The cacophony is quite horrifying.
ReplyDeleteMy aversion to noisy restaurants probably explains why I prefer to eat at home....harrumph!
columnist, thank you. It's time, and I'm not too far from doing it, is to wear ear plugs. Earplugs and a flashlight to see by would be a great combination.
DeleteYou address an affront across a broader front than dB per se, and degeneration beyond the cochlea, on a scale which amounts to a transformation of acoustic expectations in our lifetime, Blue, and goes vastly beyond the design and conduct of gastronomic commerce. Ironically our widespread capitulation to personal acoustic indiscretion, in the horrific intrusion of cellular telephone shoutings wherever we go, probably had its origin in the degenerately antisocial illusion of personal acoustic liberty of the portable music player, which in turn eradicated the expectation we grew up with, that lower sound levels are both a natural condition of life and a human right to be respected. We have observed an acceptance of diminished taste in this, which I’m not sure we can imagine seeing restored. Like your memorable entry on plastic packaging, you strike a chord here of undeniable universal regret.
ReplyDeleteLaurent, thank you. I'm at home and the only noise I hear is from traffic on the street below, birdsong and the beeping of the drier. Nothing added to what I cannot avoid.
ReplyDeleteAs to the plastic: it has grown abominably.