Brunswick County, NC Noise from Specific Sources: Low-Frequency Bass Limits (2026)

Brunswick County Code Section 1-9-562 defines 'plainly audible' as any sound, other than unamplified human conversation, that a person can detect with unaided hearing. The definition specifically addresses low-frequency bass from vehicle and personal sound systems: for a vehicular or personal sound production device, detecting just the rhythmic bass component of the music is sufficient to prove the sound is plainly audible, and the enforcing officer does not need to identify the song's title, lyrics, or artist. That standard feeds directly into Section 1-9-563(3), which bars operating sound-amplifying equipment in a motor vehicle at a volume plainly audible fifty feet from the vehicle, and into the general mechanical or exhaust noise limit of two hundred feet for the vehicle's engine or exhaust.

m. Sheriff's deputies rely on this bass-detection standard because rhythmic low-frequency bass travels through vehicle doors, walls, and partitions long after the higher frequencies of a song become unintelligible, making it the practical way to prove a car stereo or subwoofer violates the ordinance without carrying sound-metering equipment.