Arthur N. Popper, Editor

Summer Issue 

One of my “pet peeves” is the increasing sound levels in restaurants. Dining out, with a rare exception, has become a hearing challenge: a challenge to hear the server and a challenge to hear your tablemates. Indeed, my wife and I have “discovered” that a much more pleasant evening is dining at home with friends because conversation does not involve shouting to be heard, not hearing much of what is said due to acoustic masking, and possibly developing temporary threshold shift (hearing loss) over dinner. And so, at a recent meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), when I heard a talk by Kenneth Roy, I immediately invited him to contribute to this issue of Acoustics Today (AT), an article he wrote with Keely Siebein. The article gives fascinating insight into the basis for high sound levels in restaurants and an appreciation of the fact that even if a restauranteur wants to lower sound levels, the challenges are great. I trust that most (if not all) members of the ASA will “relate” to this article, as did I. Indeed, I invite you to download copies and provide it to the manager of your favorite restaurants; maybe they will “get the message.” The first article also comes from a talk at an ASA meeting. There, Gordon Ramsay discussed the history of machines that produce speech. Although I was not at the talk, I heard about it from several colleagues and am delighted to have this fascinating article.

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