I tend to take issue with noise levels in public spaces. also always the person with spare earplugs at shows.
A farmer's market was closed due to rain the other morning and we wound up going to a new coffee place to get some hot tea and black hot coffee.
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😬 the inside of the place is simply a rectangular prism with no soundproofing, objects or structure to prevent it from being an echo chamber. bare parallel walls, hard floor, nothing soft anywhere. every sound bounces until it dies of old age.
😬 the large conference table in the center of the space is made of concrete. the one object big enough to absorb something is a reflector.
😬 we had to yell for the cashier to be able to hear us from literally 2ft away over all the coffee making and banging sounds. the espresso machine won every exchange.
😬 they do not serve HOT anything. that's their schtick: only iced, made with dubiously sourced water. we came for hot tea and black hot coffee. we left with neither.
I'm also the person who brings a decibel meter with me :P but did not have it on me. probably for the best. a reading would have turned a gripe into a citation.
the staff work full shifts in that room. OSHA's action level for hearing protection is 85 dBA averaged over 8 hours, and I'd bet the espresso bar gets close.
❓ what's the loudest place you've been made to order in?
❓ earplugs: foam, flanged, or the fancy filtered ones?
❓ anyone else carry a decibel meter? app or dedicated hardware?
❓ know a café that got the acoustics right? what did they do?
for reference, the decor lands somewhere between the dining room in Beetlejuice and the brutalist club in The Experts (1989, John Travolta). nobody broke into Day-O, but the room would have carried it.
#coffee #soundproofing #adhd #autism #AuDHD #ActuallyAutistic #Accessibility #Neurodivergent #SensoryOverload #NoisePollution #OSHA #gripes