The Decibel Archive – Part 1: How Loud Is Your Best Evening? A Measuring Experiment for All of Berlin

Today is 10 October. 82 days until Silvester (New Year's Eve) – eleven weeks and five days.

Some evenings you remember not for the food but for the sound: laughter from the next table, the clinking of glasses, music so loud you had to lean in to the other person's ear. And then there is the opposite: a silence in which you can even hear the spoon. Both can be a wonderful evening. But how loud is a really good evening – in numbers?

We don't know. So today we are starting a small experiment with you: the Decibel Archive. One number, one word – that's all it takes. We'll tell it in two parts: today the rules and the question, in Part 2 the archive with everything you send us.

What Exactly Is a Decibel?

The decibel (dB) measures how loud something is – more precisely, the sound pressure level. The name recalls Alexander Graham Bell; a decibel is one tenth of a “bel”. The scale is logarithmic, so as a rough rule of thumb: ten decibels more sounds about twice as loud to the ear. That is general knowledge, not a study of ours – and all values below are rough guides that vary with distance and room.

So you can place yourself, we built a loudness staircase with five levels:

Level 1 · Whisper (about 30–40 dB): Candlelight secrets. You can hear the wine being poured.

Level 2 · Living room (about 45–55 dB): Every word is clear, even the spoon on the plate.

Level 3 · Conversation (about 60–65 dB): Normal speaking voices, everyone at the table understands each other.

Level 4 · Lively (about 70–75 dB): You lean toward your neighbour, the laughter carries.

Level 5 · Celebration (80 dB and up): People call out, sing, clap. As a rule of thumb, staying above 85 dB for long periods becomes risky for your ears – a short celebratory crescendo is something different from hours of noise.

How to Join In: One Number (or Level) and One Word

There are two ways – pick the one that suits you:

Option A – Memory: Think of your best evening at a table, anywhere, any time. Which level was it (1 to 5)? And which single word describes it?

Option B – Measurement: At your next meal with others, open a free sound-level app, let it run for ten seconds in the middle of the table, read the number – and then put your phone in the basket. Please only read the level, never record conversations. Phone microphones are not precise; deviations of several decibels are normal. That's good enough for our archive: we compare evenings, we don't calibrate a laboratory.

Reply to the comment “My reading” right below this article – for example like this: “Level 4 – lively – wedding” or “62 dB – murmur – Sunday lunch”. You don't need to give names or places; we won't name anyone in the archive unless you write that you'd like to be named.

Three examples for illustration – invented by the editorial team, not real answers: “Level 2 – living room – grandma's birthday” · “68 dB – laughter – summer evening by the canal” · “Level 5 – celebration – wedding with a band”.

If you were at the Drachmen Fest on 29 September – with live music: which level was your evening? That belongs in the archive too.

And to be honest: it has been rather quiet under our last articles. If only a few answers come in here too, we'll say so openly in Part 2 and still show the staircase, the reference values and the big question. The archive then stays open until Silvester.

The Big Question: Loud = Lively – or Loud = Exhausting?

There are two camps here, both with good arguments:

Team Lively: A room that hums is a room where nobody feels overheard. You can laugh without the next table listening in. A silent room turns every sentence into a performance.

Team Quiet: If I can't understand the person across from me, I'm eating – but I'm not together with them. A good evening lives on listening, not on shouting over each other.

These are the arguments of the two sides, not measurement results. Where do you stand? Reply to the comment “The big question” with “Team Lively” or “Team Quiet” – and, if you like, one sentence of reasoning.

Mini Experiment: The 10-Second Reading

At your next shared meal: measure for ten seconds, phone in the basket, remember the number. And at the end of the evening, ask one question around the table: was it too loud, too quiet or just right? If you like, send us both.

The Roadmap to Silvester

Part 1 – today, 10 Oct (82 days): rules, staircase and big question. Part 2 – Saturday, 7 November 2026 (54 days): the Decibel Archive with all entries, the quietest and the loudest evening, the spread across the five levels and the result of the big question. The archive stays open until Silvester.

In between, our other stories continue: Table 85 (Chapter 76 around 16 Oct), the Seating Usher (follow-up article on 23 Oct) and the Resolution Swap (Part 2 on 19 Nov).

82 Days Until Silvester

82 days until Silvester – how loud will your last evening of the year be?

Our holiday closure runs until Thursday, 15 October. From Friday, 16 October, we are there for you again: Mastiha Mezedopolio, Arndtstraße 12, 10965 Berlin-Kreuzberg, reservations by phone on 030 612 85 386.

The Drachmen Fest was a success – thank you to everyone who came. The next one comes in a year, like every year.