Ceramic vs Metal: How Material Choices Shape the Sound of Your Table

The moment guests sit down, the room begins to speak. Chairs glide, cutlery taps, glasses chime, and suddenly the entire tablescape has its own soundtrack. As a tabletop stylist and pragmatic lifestyle curator, I spend as much time listening as I do looking. A place setting can be visually exquisite yet feel exhausting if every movement explodes into sharp clatter.

That is where material choice becomes quietly powerful. Ceramic and metal are the backbone of contemporary dining and interior finishes, yet they behave very differently in the way they reflect, absorb, and diffuse sound. Understanding those differences lets you curate a table – and a room – that looks beautiful and sounds comfortable.

In this article, I will weave together everyday tabletop experience with evidence from architectural acoustics and ceramic materials research to compare how ceramic and metal contribute to auditory comfort. The focus is practical: what these materials do in real rooms, and how you can mix and tune them for a calmer, more enjoyable soundscape.

What Auditory Comfort Really Means

Auditory comfort is not about absolute silence. It is the feeling that sound in a space is supportive rather than tiring: voices are clear without shouting, cutlery noise fades naturally, and background activity feels lively but not chaotic.

Acoustic specialists usually separate two ideas. Sound insulation is the ability of walls, floors, and ceilings to block noise from moving between spaces. Acoustic quality is how sound behaves inside a room: how much it reflects, how long it lingers, and how evenly it fills the space. For tabletop design, acoustic quality is our main concern.

Articles on interior acoustics from design publishers such as ArchDaily and Architype emphasize that every surface contributes to this quality. Hard, smooth materials like glass, concrete, ceramics, stone, and metal mostly reflect sound, increasing reverberation and perceived loudness. Soft, porous materials like textiles, carpets, and upholstered furniture absorb sound waves, shortening the echo and creating a more intimate atmosphere.

To quantify this, acousticians use the sound absorption coefficient, which ranges from 0.00 for a perfectly reflective surface to 1.00 for a perfectly absorbent one at a given frequency. ArchDaily’s reference data for typical building surfaces shows just how reflective ceramics and metals are in their standard forms: ceramics around 0.015 and metal surfaces around 0.025, both extremely low absorption values in the speech-relevant frequency range. In other words, untreated ceramic tiles and bare metal panels are acoustically “hard,” sending most sound straight back into the room.

An additional metric, the Noise Reduction Coefficient or NRC, summarizes absorption performance by averaging these coefficients over key mid frequencies (250, 500, 1,000, and 2,000 Hz). Materials like glass wool or rock wool can reach NRC values around 0.5 to 0.7, while plaster, concrete, glass, marble, granite, metal, and ceramics typically fall near zero. That contrast explains why a room full of tiles, metal chairs, and bare tabletops can feel harsh, and why strategic use of soft surfaces is so transformative.

With this foundation in mind, we can explore how ceramics and metals behave, both in everyday tabletop situations and in more advanced architectural applications.

Ceramics: From Echoey Glaze to Gentle Porosity

Ceramics may be the most versatile category on your table and your walls. They can be glossy and glass-like, or earthy and porous. Acoustically, those differences are not cosmetic; they change how a room sounds.

Glazed Tiles and Standard Tableware: Reflective by Default

Conventional ceramic tiles are celebrated for durability, cleanability, and aesthetic flexibility. A study on ceramic-tiled walls published on arXiv notes that modern wall tiles are engineered for abrasion resistance, water impermeability, and visual appeal. Acoustically, though, that same high-density, rigid, glazed surface means poor sound absorption and very high reflectivity. The authors explicitly point out that standard ceramic tiles are not effective at reducing noise; they mostly bounce sound back into the room.

This aligns with data summarized by ArchDaily and with flooring guidance from Powerhouse, which describes all types of tiled flooring – ceramic, porcelain, and natural stone – as weak in sound reduction. Because their surfaces are smooth and reflective, tile floors often increase noise levels, especially under footsteps and moving chairs. The Powerhouse analysis suggests that adding an acoustical membrane under the tiles and using flexible grout can help, but the tiles themselves remain acoustically hard.

At the table, glossy porcelain plates and fully glazed stoneware behave similarly. When they collide with cutlery or each other, the impact energy does not vanish; it is converted into vibrational energy and radiated as sound. In a room where the floor, walls, and tabletops also reflect strongly, that clink repeats in multiple reflections and builds into a noticeably bright, sometimes fatiguing sound field.

Acoustic Ceramic Innovations: Tuning Cavities and Structuring Surfaces

The story changes when ceramics are designed intentionally as acoustic materials rather than just as durable finishes.

A research team writing on arXiv has demonstrated ceramic “metatiles” that turn an ordinary tiled wall into a broadband sound absorber, particularly at low frequencies such as the thud of footsteps or impact noise. They do this by integrating tuned cavity structures based on Helmholtz resonators directly into the tile assembly.

In their design, the gaps between small ceramic subtile elements become the resonator necks, and the air space behind the tiles acts as the resonator chambers. By arranging these cavities in a graded pattern with varying dimensions, they create a heterogeneous surface that absorbs a wide band of low-frequency sound while remaining compact and visually seamless. The work covers numerical modeling, analytical circuits (representing each cavity as a resistor–inductor–capacitor system), and real-world experiments, all confirming that the tuned ceramic wall can dramatically improve low-frequency sound absorption without sacrificing the familiar tiled aesthetic.

This is an important point for designers. It shows that ceramics need not be acoustically hard by destiny; geometry and internal structure can transform them into highly effective absorbers, even in the low-frequency range where traditional porous materials often require thick layers.

Porous Ceramic Foams and Coated Ceramics: High Absorption with High Performance

Beyond metatiles, a growing body of research explores porous ceramics specifically engineered for sound absorption, sometimes with additional functions like waterproofing and antibacterial performance.

In RSC Advances, researchers report on ceramic foams fabricated using polyurethane sponges as templates and fluorinated to create waterproof, antibacterial sound absorbers. By tuning the amount of ceramic slurry, they control pore size and open porosity. Optimized samples reach a maximum sound absorption coefficient of about 0.92 at mid-range frequencies in standard impedance tube tests, while remaining buoyant and strongly water-repellent. The ceramic composition is chosen to balance acoustic, mechanical, and processing requirements: silica for appropriate acoustic impedance, alumina for strength, and alkali oxides to lower sintering temperature. These foams are aimed at harsh outdoor environments where typical fibrous absorbers would soak up water, grow bacteria, and fail structurally.

In ACS Omega, another team coats highly porous ceramics (with apparent porosity around 85 to 90 percent) with a thin film made from graphene oxide and styrene–butadiene rubber. They find that increasing the graphene oxide content systematically boosts the sound absorption coefficient, especially between about 200 and 800 Hz, and shifts the peak absorption toward lower frequencies. A mass ratio of graphene oxide to polymer of roughly one to ten gives the best performance. A control sample coated only with the rubber actually performs worse than the raw ceramic, because the pure polymer seeps into the pores and blocks the fine structure that drives acoustic damping. The graphene network, by contrast, creates tortuous paths and viscous and thermal losses that convert sound into heat more efficiently.

Work published in MDPI’s Molecules journal investigates porous anorthite–mullite–corundum ceramics reinforced with in situ grown mullite whiskers and derived from construction waste. Using discarded aluminosilicate materials as feedstock, together with additives like cerium oxide and aluminum fluoride, researchers achieve high open porosities while maintaining impressive mechanical strength. The introduction of around two weight percent cerium oxide enhances whisker formation, lowers bulk density, and improves biaxial flexural strength. Comparing with other porous ceramic systems cited in the same paper, the authors note that ceramic foams with porosities above about 80 percent have achieved sound absorption coefficients near 0.86 across wide frequency bands (roughly 200 to 4,000 Hz), while silica foams with porosities between about 85 and 91 percent reach coefficients around 0.69 in the 1,000 to 4,000 Hz range.

Taken together, these studies reinforce a consistent message: when ceramics are given high, well-connected porosity or carefully tuned cavities, they can rival or outperform conventional absorbers in the mid and even low-frequency ranges, while adding fire resistance, durability, and in some cases water repellence and antibacterial behavior.

Handmade Terracotta and Unglazed Ceramics: Softer Sound for Human-Scale Spaces

At the scale of floors and tableware, handmade terracotta behaves very differently from dense, glazed tile. An article from a terracotta manufacturer focusing on thermal and acoustic qualities describes how traditionally fired terracotta tiles, made by hand and fired at relatively low temperatures, remain micro-porous and “breathable.” Acoustically, the slightly irregular, open-pored surface scatters and partially absorbs sound, reducing reverberation and creating what the author calls a warmer, softer sound environment than glass, concrete, or fully glazed tiles.

Compared with industrial terracotta, which is machine-pressed, fired hotter, and often glazed, handmade versions are more porous and irregular, providing warmer, more diffuse acoustics closer to wood. Architects specify them for living spaces, restaurants, galleries, and offices where temperature stability, humidity buffering, and calm sound matter as much as aesthetics.

Translating that to the tabletop, unglazed stoneware, matte porcelain, and terracotta serving pieces tend to sound less piercing when plates touch or when a spoon meets a bowl. The microscopic surface texture diffuses the energy of the contact, and the internal porosity introduces a bit of damping. It does not turn your dinnerware into an acoustic panel, but in a reflective room, every small source of diffusion and absorption helps.

Metals: Brilliance, Clarity, and Acoustic Challenges

Metal belongs on the table, in the kitchen, and in architecture because of its strength, precision, and hygienic appeal. Acoustically, however, metal surfaces and objects sit at the reflective extreme.

ArchDaily’s material reference lists metal surfaces with sound absorption coefficients around 0.025 in the mid frequencies – slightly different numerically from ceramics but still very close to a perfect reflector. That means a stainless steel counter, metal wall panel, or exposed ductwork will send most sound right back into the space.

In a piece on countertop acoustics from East Coast Surfaces, the authors explain that smooth, hard materials like granite and quartz primarily reflect sound, creating more vibrant and resonant environments. Although they focus on stone and engineered surfaces, the same logic extends to polished metal. Softer materials such as wood or certain laminates absorb more sound, reducing echo and overall noise levels. Textured or matte finishes are recommended because they scatter sound waves and reduce harsh, mirror-like reflections, improving perceived sound quality.

At the table, metal cutlery and serving pieces are essential, but they are also active sound sources. The clink of fork on plate and the ring of a ladle against a pot are part of the auditory identity of dining. In moderation, those sounds feel lively. When metal is paired with multiple other reflective surfaces – tiled floors, bare walls, glass, and large metal appliances – each impact becomes a spark in a reverberant chamber, and the overall noise can quickly overwhelm conversation.

For commercial interiors and open offices, interior-acoustics guidance from Architype suggests that metal, concrete, glass, and stone should be balanced with absorptive elements such as textiles and wood. Without this balance, reverberation builds, everyday sounds are amplified, and people experience fatigue and reduced productivity. The same principles apply to metal-heavy dining spaces: what feels chic in photos can feel loud in real use.

Ceramic vs Metal in Real Dining Spaces

When you compare ceramics and metals strictly by raw absorption numbers, they both look poor. Standard tiles, porcelain, and metal panels reflect most sound energy and have negligible coefficients compared with acoustic foams or fabric-covered panels. Yet in lived spaces, their acoustic signatures diverge once you consider surface structure, available innovations, and how they are typically used.

It can be helpful to frame the comparison across everyday scenarios.

Scenario	Ceramic-Dominant Surfaces and Objects	Metal-Dominant Surfaces and Objects	Auditory Comfort Considerations
Compact home dining room with tiled floor	Glazed ceramic floor tiles, porcelain plates, ceramic wall finishes	Limited metal except cutlery and small accents	Ceramics provide bright reflections; without textiles, room can feel echoey. Adding rugs and upholstery is key.
Open kitchen–dining with stone counters	Stone or glazed ceramic backsplash, possibly ceramic floor	Stainless appliances, metal hood, metal fixtures, metal bar stools	Metal plus hard ceramics intensify clatter; soft seating, curtains, and acoustic wall elements become crucial.
Restaurant with handmade terracotta floor	Handmade terracotta tiles, unglazed ceramic tableware, ceramic feature walls	Metal chairs and flatware, open kitchen equipment	Micro-porous terracotta softens room response compared with fully glazed tiles, but metal still needs balancing.
Office café or break room	Ceramic tiles on walls or floors	Metal tables, metal chairs, exposed ductwork	Both materials are reflective; acoustic ceiling panels and upholstered elements strongly influence comfort.
Hospitality lobby with acoustic ceramics	Porous acoustic ceramic modules or metatile walls	Metal lighting, railings, and decorative elements	Engineered ceramics absorb and diffuse sound; metal remains as accent without dominating acoustics.

This comparison reflects a central theme in the literature. Left untreated, both ceramics and metals are acoustically hard. However, ceramics can more easily be transformed into high-performance absorbers through porosity, cavities, and surface texture, while still keeping their structural and aesthetic roles. Metals can be perforated and backed with absorptive material, but that typically adds other layers; the metal itself rarely becomes the absorber.

From a tabletop perspective, ceramics also offer a wider “tuning range” between glossy, highly reflective finishes and matte, micro-porous, or textured surfaces that introduce a touch of sonic softness. Metals, while indispensable, are better treated as accents within a material mix rather than the sole protagonist.

Practical Strategies for Quieter, Beautiful Tables and Rooms

Translating acoustic research into everyday choices begins with one simple idea: you do not need to turn your dining room into a recording studio. You only need to avoid stacking too many reflective elements without relief.

Tune the Room Before You Blame the Plate

Interior-acoustic guides from Architype and ArchDaily highlight that poor acoustics often come from excessive reverberation rather than a single noisy object. When ceramics and metals dominate floors, walls, and furniture, even quiet activities become loud.

If your dining area has tiled flooring, painted or concrete walls, and exposed metal fixtures, prioritize adding soft, porous surfaces before replacing your dinnerware. A substantial rug under the table, upholstered seating, and full-length curtains can absorb and scatter sound effectively. This follows the recommended approach of pairing smooth or stone surfaces with textiles and wood to create a balanced acoustic response.

Once the room itself is more forgiving, the acoustic personality of your plates, bowls, and serving pieces becomes a matter of fine-tuning instead of damage control.

When to Lean into Ceramics

Ceramics shine when you want visual clarity coupled with the option to soften sound through texture and microstructure.

In high-traffic dining rooms or hospitality spaces with ceramic floors and walls, consider upgrading from fully glazed tiles to options that are slightly textured or, where appropriate, handmade terracotta. As the terracotta-focused article notes, the micro-porous, irregular surfaces of handmade tiles scatter and partly absorb sound, creating calmer acoustics than industrial, mirror-like tiles. They also offer thermal mass and humidity buffering that support overall comfort.

For wall treatments, acoustic ceramic modules and metatile systems, like those described in Leonardo and on arXiv, allow you to use ceramic as a visible design feature while quietly enhancing low-frequency absorption. These systems employ tuned cavities or sculpted surfaces to manage reflection, absorption, and diffusion simultaneously. In multipurpose dining–working spaces, integrating such elements into feature walls can improve speech clarity without resorting to fabric-wrapped panels everywhere.

At the table, if you already love ceramic dinnerware, you do not need to abandon it for sound reasons. Shifting toward matte glazes, unglazed rims, or slightly thicker, more grounded forms can subtly reduce sharp clinks. Mixing in wood chargers, linen placemats, and cloth napkins further decouples ceramic-on-ceramic impacts and absorbs high-frequency chatter noises.

How to Use Metal Without Creating a Soundstorm

Metal is easiest to live with acoustically when it plays a supporting role rather than covering every surface in sight.

Kitchen and surface specialists note that textured or matte finishes scatter sound better than glossy, polished ones. Applied to metals, this suggests that a brushed stainless steel counter or a softly textured metal panel will feel less aurally aggressive than a mirror-finished sheet. Increasing thickness can also help dampen vibration, though this needs to align with structural and visual goals.

In metal-forward spaces, the surrounding palette matters. If you have metal-framed chairs, a metal table base, and visible appliances, try to counterbalance them with softer tabletop layers: a fabric runner, coasters, or wooden serving boards that break up metal-on-ceramic and metal-on-stone contact. This approach mirrors broader acoustic guidance from interior design resources, which recommend combining reflective, absorptive, and diffusive surfaces rather than choosing only one type.

For wall or ceiling treatments, perforated metal can be very effective when backed by a fibrous absorber. The perforations allow sound to reach the absorptive layer, while the metal provides a clean, durable face. However, the acoustic work is still done by the soft material behind; the metal alone remains reflective.

Borrowing from Advanced Porous Ceramics Without Going Full Lab

It is unlikely you will specify graphene-oxide-coated ceramic foams or mullite whisker-reinforced panels for a simple home dining nook. Nevertheless, these studies offer useful cues.

Porous ceramic foams with porosities above about 80 percent and sound absorption coefficients approaching 0.9 show that deeply structured surfaces are powerful acoustic tools. The details – whether the pores were created via sponge templating, direct foaming, or freeze casting – are technical, but the takeaway is clear. Complexity in the microstructure disperses and dissipates sound energy.

On a more accessible level, you can echo that complexity with textured, ribbed, or sculpted ceramic accessories: a relief-tiled bar front, three-dimensional ceramic wall art, fluted vases, or chamotte-based modules with deliberately irregular surfaces. These elements can act as small-scale diffusers, breaking up strong reflections from larger flat surfaces.

Research using industrial and construction waste as raw material for porous ceramics also suggests an environmentally aligned path. If you are designing a larger project, consider asking your architect or interior designer about recycled-ceramic acoustic products. Some of the systems described in Molecules and other technical journals demonstrate that it is possible to combine sound absorption, structural performance, and responsible material sourcing.

FAQ: Everyday Questions About Ceramic and Metal Sound

Are ceramic plates always quieter than metal ones?

In room-scale acoustic data, both ceramics and metals are strongly reflective. However, at the tactile scale of the table, glaze, thickness, and surface texture matter. A matte, slightly porous ceramic piece tends to produce a softer, less piercing sound than a very thin, highly polished metal plate when struck. The real difference in comfort often comes from what surrounds them: textiles, wood, and other absorbent materials reduce how much those impacts echo through the room.

Can acoustic ceramic wall tiles replace fabric panels in a dining space?

Research on metatile walls and acoustic ceramic modules shows that carefully engineered ceramic tiles with internal cavities or sculpted surfaces can achieve significant sound absorption, especially at low frequencies that are hard to treat with thin panels. For a dining space, they can be an excellent alternative or complement to fabric panels, particularly where robustness, cleanability, and design continuity with other ceramic finishes are important. Working with an acoustically informed designer is advisable to match the product to the room’s size and use.

What is the simplest upgrade if my metal-heavy kitchen feels too loud?

Start with soft, porous elements before changing hard finishes. A substantial rug runner, cushioned or upholstered seating, and full curtains will absorb a surprising amount of clatter. On the surfaces themselves, consider adding wood cutting boards that remain on the counter, fabric runners on the dining table, and perhaps switching a few glossy metal accessories for matte or textured versions. These changes are aligned with general acoustic design recommendations and often transform the room’s sound more than swapping a single material.

A beautifully set table should invite conversation, not compete with it. Ceramics and metals both earn their place in contemporary dining, but they pull the sound of a room in different directions. Standard glazed ceramics and bare metals are acoustically bright; porous, textured ceramics and well-balanced material palettes can bring the sound back into a comfortable, human register. When you plan your next tabletop or interior refresh, listen as carefully as you look, and let auditory comfort be part of your design brief from the very first sketch.

References

1. https://www.gsa.gov/cdnstatic/GSA_Sound_Matters_%28Dec_2011%29_508.pdf
2. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8696997/
3. https://direct.mit.edu/leon/article/53/3/268/96866/The-Acoustic-Ceramic-Module
4. https://arxiv.org/html/2506.17699
5. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsomega.1c03362
6. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/2843/1/012007
7. https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2016/j3/d3ra06675d
8. https://www.researchgate.net/post/Effective_pore_size_of_ceramic_to_absorb_complete_sound_wave
9. https://www.archdaily.com/924700/how-to-improve-the-acoustics-of-a-room
10. https://www.eastcoastsurfaces.us/blog/enhancing-home-acoustics-the-science-behind-countertop-sound-quality