About

Why this exists

Loud rooms are an accessibility issue. People with hearing loss, hearing aids, cochlear implants, auditory processing disorder, autism, sensory sensitivities, or simply tired ears regularly get excluded from social life because so many venues have become unintelligibly loud. Restaurant reviewers don't track this. Maps don't surface it. Too Loud In Here exists to make that information findable.

What inspired this

A while back I met up with an old college friend who is deaf. We had a genuinely hard time finding anywhere to grab a drink and some food that wasn't both painfully loud — rough on my one ear that already has issues — and so dim that it was hard for her to read our lips. We ended up holding a candle under our faces just so she could follow the conversation. I walked away wishing for a site that told you how loud (and how dark) a restaurant or bar actually is before you go. This is that site.

If Too Loud In Here is useful to you, please consider donating a few dollars to Access to ASL, a nonprofit where that friend works.

How the ratings work

Every reading is a 1–5 score with the visit time and crowd level. A venue's headline number is the average across all readings, shown alongside the sample count so you can judge the confidence.

1 — Conversation-friendly. Easy to hear at a normal voice across the table.
2 — Mild background. You can hear, but you notice the room.
3 — Raised voice required. You're projecting; small groups still work.
4 — Shouting territory. Conversation is a strain; hearing aids struggle.
5 — Hearing protection. Sustained exposure risks hearing damage.

Decibel readings

Optionally, the submission form can capture a ~5-second sample from your phone microphone and estimate the dB SPL. We display the median across readings as supplementary context — never as the headline.

Phone-mic decibel readings are uncalibrated estimates for rough comparison only.

Curious how the meter behaves? Try it from your couch — practice mode saves nothing.

Reference chart

Reference points for what a dB SPL reading sounds like in everyday life, and how long the NIOSH-recommended safe daily exposure is at that level (3 dB exchange rate from the 85 dB / 8-hour baseline).

dB	Like	Safe daily exposure
30	Whisper	Safe to listen indefinitely
40	Quiet library	Safe to listen indefinitely
50	Refrigerator hum	Safe to listen indefinitely
60	Normal conversation	Safe to listen indefinitely
70	Vacuum cleaner	Safe to listen indefinitely
80	Garbage disposal, heavy traffic	Safe to listen indefinitely
85	Snowblower / food processor	Safe ~8 hr before damage risk
88	Power tools	Safe ~4 hr before damage risk
91	Subway train passing	Safe ~2 hr before damage risk
94	Hair dryer at arm's length	Safe ~1 hr before damage risk
97	Motorcycle	Safe ~30 min before damage risk
100	Chainsaw, drill	Safe ~15 min before damage risk
103	Helicopter, snowmobile	Safe ~8 min before damage risk
106	Loud night club, jackhammer	Safe ~4 min before damage risk
109	Leaf blower	Safe ~2 min before damage risk
112	Rock concert front rows	Safe < 1 minute before damage risk
115	Siren up close	Safe < 1 minute before damage risk
120	Jet engine at distance	Immediate hearing-damage risk
130	Jet engine, threshold of pain	Immediate hearing-damage risk

Source: NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) recommended exposure limits.

Submission rules

1–5 ratings can be submitted from anywhere — including from memory.
Decibel readings must be captured within half a mile of the venue (they only mean something on-site).
New venues are reviewed by a moderator before they appear on the map.
Submissions are rate-limited per device and per IP, and you can only review the same venue once every few hours, to slow abuse.
v1 is anonymous — accounts and venue claims are coming.

Privacy

We store your approximate location and IP address with each submission so we can enforce the geofence and clean up abuse. We do not display either publicly.