Sometimes we keep the volume low because the baby is sleeping. Sometimes we enjoy talking over movies, and subtitles can help us not miss things. But the bigge

Sometimes we keep the volume low because the baby is sleeping. Sometimes we enjoy talking over movies, and subtitles can help us not miss things. But the biggest reason is that house acoustics suck. Sitting in a drywall box is not the best thing for intelligibility or sonic appreciation. I used to operate a small music studio out of a house, and I spent more than a trivial amount of money to make the acoustics decent for such work. I daydream about doing similar treatments in my living room, but I don't make my living doing audio work anymore, so it's hard to justify the time and expense. So I turn on subtitles or put on headphones.