Depends which way the wind is blowing. I got to see a Shuttle launch on the base from five miles away. I was expecting a huge roar. I barely heard anything. I since seen others from within Melbourne (a lot more than five miles away). None was ever really loud, but at least some were louder than that one I saw on base.
ML/NJ
I saw a shuttle launch from the causeway on the Cape too. The final Challenger mission. Five miles away and it was just a crackle. Never heard the explosion at all even though it was nearly directly overhead about nine nautical miles altitude and seven nautical miles downrange.