A restaurateur always thinks of the menu. The setting. The quality of the wait staff. But great experiences in restaurants go beyond quality food and service. A night out is a chance for couples to reconnect, families to get together, and friends to spend quality time together. When noise levels make conversation difficult or impossible, the experience is compromised. Our founder, Paul Battaglia, wrote the well-cited study on this subject “Achieving Acoustical Comfort in Restaurants” for the Acoustical Society of America. The study found that acoustical comfort relates more to reverberation time – how quickly sound diminishes without lingering – than it does to the overall noise level in the restaurant (within reasonable limits). Ultimately, striking the proper balance of ambiance and acoustic comfort in a restaurant depends on the amount of sound absorption in the space, which is measured in Sabins. Products like STC’s Hi-Sabin Panel make superior sound absorption cost effective and easy, leading to diner satisfaction without sacrificing any of the social ambiance they’ve come to expect.