Speech intelligibility was examined at high noise levels for a range of speech and noise spectra. Over a wide range of conditions, deterioration of speech intelligibility was observed with a constant speech‐to‐noise (S/N) ratio at high noise levels. Little change in intelligibility was observed for over‐all speech levels to 130 db in the absence of background noise. Control tests ruled out distortion within the equipment as the factor associated with the loss of speech intelligibility.