Cathedral City, CA Noise from Specific Sources: Low-Frequency Bass Limits (2026)

The Cathedral City Municipal Code does not measure bass with a meter. Section 11.96.020 defines plainly audible as any sound that can be detected by a person using his or her unaided hearing faculties. It then speaks to vehicle sound equipment directly: the investigating compliance officer need not determine the title of a song, specific words, or the artist performing the song, and detection of the vibration from the rhythmic bass component of the music is sufficient to constitute a plainly audible sound. In practice that means thump felt at fifty feet counts, even when no melody or lyric carries that far.

That definition feeds § 11.96.040(A), which prohibits operating or permitting a radio, stereo receiver, musical instrument, television, computer, compact disc player, tape recorder, cassette player or other sound device from within a motor vehicle so that the sound is plainly audible at a distance of fifty feet from the vehicle. For a vehicle on private property, the distance is measured to the property line instead. The section covers vehicles on a public right-of-way, a public place or private property in Cathedral City.

The same plainly audible definition is used elsewhere in the chapter. Section 11.96.050(J) bars repairing, rebuilding, reconstructing or dismantling a motor vehicle or other mechanical equipment in a manner plainly audible across property lines outside the permitted hours.

Bass from a stationary source, such as a home or business sound system, is tested under the dB(A) table in § 11.96.030(A)(6) at the lot line, where the residential exterior limit is 65 from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. and 50 from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Motor vehicle noise is exempt from that table.

The police department and code compliance division jointly administer the chapter under § 11.96.080. Confiscation of the amplifying components, or of the vehicle when the component cannot be removed without harm, is available under § 11.96.040(C).