I find it absurd that music in cafés and restaurants has become so loud that it’s hard to have conversations with the people on your table. Sound pollution is a real thing.
In restaurants it doesn’t make sense, because you usually have the table for 2 hours after which the staff will remind you it’s time to leave (in Germany).
I find that sound design is famously awful in most public spaces!
For example, train stations tend to have high ceilings, so announcements are loud and full of echoes and reverbs. [0]
I think of sound a bit like WiFi: it’s better to have tons of low power speakers everywhere delivering a clear and non aggressive sound, than a handful of screaming speakers in a tight space: if you’re next to it it’s too loud, and far away it’s drown in reverb.
My guess is that architects and everyone else either don’t know or don’t care.
That's true of nightclubs today, and I think that's just expected and normal? I'd go to a club to hear music, dance, and drink. Sure, sometimes you might stop to try to talk a little bit, but that's not the primary activity.
I went to nightclubs because other people did and to meet women. The music was pretty much all the same with a beat behind it, and the drink was watered down.
It's almost as if nightclubs are set up to prevent human interaction.
It's because they don't want you sitting there for any longer than it takes to eat your meal. They deliberately have tile floors and hard walls to amplify the noise.
