Also living in Austria (Vienna), I do not experience the situation being as bad as you do. There are cafés where you can talk for hours (also in the evening), there are pubs (some of them do play loud music tough), and plenty other bars where you an go to and have a nice chat, with background music but not disturbingly loud. I'm sensitive to noise but there are usually plenty of choices if I want to hang out in tranquil places. The situation is different on the countryside where you don't have that much choice.