Hens, no. A covey of hens is a soft chirping burble your neighbors will never notice. Males crow — a sharp, repeated call, far quieter than a rooster's but audible.
Hens are barely an acoustic event. Their register is soft contact calls and alarm chirps, a pleasant background burble that loses to wind chimes, air conditioners, and any conversation. Six hens behind a fence are, for noise purposes, invisible. This is a genuine quail advantage and half the reason they thrive where chickens are banned.
Males are the asterisk. A rooster-quail crows: a sharp, repeated, whole-head-vibrating announcement, delivered with total commitment at times of his choosing, early morning included. It is much smaller than a rooster's crow — keepers who have run both flocks generally describe the quail operation as the quieter one — but it is a real, identifiable sound, and in dense housing with close windows it can register.
So the noise question is really the flock-composition question: hens lay perfectly well without a male, so a no-male covey gets you full egg production at near-silence. Add a male only when you want fertile eggs for hatching. If his enthusiasm becomes a diplomacy problem, males can be housed in a garage or outbuilding overnight, or simply not kept year-round.
One more note: the loudest thing about a quail setup is occasionally you, at 6 am, discovering what a flushed covey sounds like against a lid. Startle management — cover, routine, no surprise flashlights — is housing design, not volume control.
FAQ
Will one male upset apartment neighbors?
Depends on distance and windows. Balcony-adjacent, possibly; detached yard, rarely. Test diplomacy: no male until you need fertile eggs.
Do hens ever crow?
Hens make contact and alarm calls, but the territorial crow is male. A "hen" performing the full number is a mislabeled rooster (sexing guide).
Are they noisy at night?
Quail sleep at night like sensible birds. Nighttime racket usually means a disturbance, often a predator testing the enclosure, and is worth taking seriously.