Concord, NC Noise Ordinances: Decibel Limits (2026)

Concord regulates sound-producing devices by an audibility distance test rather than a decibel reading. Section 30-204(5) makes it a per se violation to operate a radio, television, boom box, stereo, musical instrument or similar device that is plainly audible to anyone besides the listener and unreasonably disturbs the peace in a way that is plainly audible at a distance of 50 feet from any person in a commercial, industrial area, or public space. In residential and noise-sensitive areas, including multifamily and single-family dwellings, the audibility threshold tightens to 30 feet from any person.

A separate per se violation in § 30-204(6) covers loudspeakers, amplifiers and public address systems used in an unreasonably loud and raucous manner within or adjacent to residential or noise-sensitive areas, or when plainly audible across the real property line of the public space where the sound originates. Officers responding to a complaint apply these fixed distances rather than a sound-level meter reading, and the general factors in § 30-203(b), proximity to sleeping areas, land use and zoning, time of day, duration, and whether the sound is recurrent, still inform whether a sound is unreasonably loud and raucous for any device that does not fall inside one of the article's specific per se categories. The distance test applies around the clock; § 30-204(5) does not narrow it to nighttime hours the way the yelling and blower provisions do.