Noise levels

I think in terms of dining parameters, an important one that doesnt seem to get much coverage here in RVA is the noise level (something we were acutely aware of on some of our recent experiences). Its rather surprising that I havent seen many RVA food sites (blogs or other reviews) quantify this in any way. The Times and the WaPo, for example, have been doing this for a few years now, with Tom Sietsema using a nicely scientific scale that I like - http://bit.ly/9dzwJk

Quiet (under 60 decibels)
Conversation is easy (60-70 decibels)
Must speak with raised voice (71-80 decibels)
Extremely loud (over 80 decibels)

As someone who loves the log-scale, it is useful to point out as Tom writes - "The brain registers every 10-decibel increase as a doubling of loudness. Thus, a restaurant that measures 80 decibels sounds twice as noisy as a place that measures 70 decibels."
I wish I saw more of this sort of thing on reviews here. I will try and parametrize (albeit subjectively, lacking a db meter) this in future - the QCME scale.

Edit: A little science detour - while a 10 dB corresponds to a 10x power increase (2x power = 3 dB), the brain views things differently. Consequently, there are different units called phon and sone which are related to dB by the psychophysically measured frequency responses of the ear (ie how we actually perceive the sound/loudness). Hence this little mathematical discrepancy.