Another oddball here. I usually play with music on and sounds off. I play Live mode on mute but Buy & Build mode is just different without music.
Although I do like the sound of babies and toddlers crying from neglect.

I definitely won't trust dlseis with my children. You sound like a real, living and breathing nanny.

Sound is always on during gameplay, but lately when I'm just building lots or decorating a neighborhood, it's off. I instead listen to an audio book or one of my random music playlists.

I rarely play but when I do have the sounds on low. When I'm building the sound is off!

Until the start of last year, I played without sound. My computer was able to handle more custom content with speed by switching the sound off.

Now I have a faster computer, all the Sim sounds seem fresh again.

I love hearing the little sound effects like their footsteps and them talking/playing. I hate the sound the electronic stuff makes though and I wish there was a way to only mute tv's and stereos. (I actually don't have stereos on any home lots cause they're too annoying). And the elevator music the game likes to switch to in buy/build mode can be too much as well, so if i'm spending a lot of time there i tend to mute.

Speaking of sound, I have a peculiar habit related to sound. As I said in my previous post, my game is always muted unless there's a specific sound I need to hear, but even so I am very picky about shoe sounds being correct on my cc clothes. Why it matters to me when I never hear it, I don't know, but it does

I almost always play with the sound off - once in a blue moon I'll turn them on. I like my game soundless as I play my own music, and a lot of the sounds either annoy me or I like them mute for some reason. Examples:

Baby chimes - One of my favourite things to NOT hear! I have Inteen with risky woohoo and not-always-effective birth control, and being as clueless about a surprise pregnancy as the Sim involved is one of my favourite parts (I love the unexpected in my game).
TV - Too loud and annoying, plus my Sims often leave them on when I send them to bed. I don't like a sleeping household with the TV blaring.
Music - same applies to TV. Plus I play my own music, and I love watching my Sims dance along to whatever I'm playing in the background. If they're in time or the music fits the occasion, bonus!
Telephone - Don't find it annoying necessarily, but after so long playing with the sound off I've become good at spotting the visual sound waves. Plus I play free will, so an unoccupied Sim usually gets it and it's often an annoying hobby lot call anyway.
Voices - I don't find the voices annoying in themselves (although the complaining is a bit). What annoys me is that the voices don't always match what I imagine for them. My younger lady Sims I always imagine will have higher voices. The one that actually comes out of their mouths is deeper and too stern sounding in some situations. I do like the children's voices though.

Music off, sound on, even when I'm listening to music or a podcast. When I played sims 1, I never had the sound on. Today when people talk about how great the music was, I have no idea what they're talking about.

I play with the music of the game off and my own music blasting 80 % of the time. I can hear some of the Sim stuff, but it is background.

I installed all the music I want to hear and disabled all I don't want to hear, so I have always sound on ^^

I do though shift the music out when I think it is time too.

As for tv do I have my own movies (trailers from movies) driving. My simmers does rarely watch tv anyway.

Sometimes I play with the sound on; sometimes I play with the sound off. It really depends on how I'm feeling. That said, whenever I'm streaming and whenever I'm playing a game that's destined for YouTube, I play with the sound off. I don't know if YouTube dislikes TS2 sound as much as it dislikes TS3 sound, and I don't want to find out.

Frequently - I'll usually play Netflix or podcasts on my tablet in the background while I'm Simming, especially if I am building! If I am in Live Mode though, I'll turn the sound on.

Sounds on, always. It wouldn't be the same without hearing my sims talking. I like the background noises and even the radio, but I can't stand the music for the other modes, so I have to keep toggling music off and on if I want to spend a while in build/buy, or while the game is loading.

I can't play without sound, it feels incredibly dead and dull. With sound, you get all of the little nuances, the weird chimes, the simlish... I've never once even considered playing without sound.

I usually play nearly without sound. Sound is on, but I plug a set of headphones into the computer's sound output socket. Most of the time, the headphones lie on my desk, and I only occasionally put them to my ears. With the headphones lying on my desk, I only hear the loudest sounds, and them at an almost imperceptible volume. I often hear the telephone ringing, but I never hear the doorbell. It's a pity really, because I like to hear my Sims' voices. I put the headphones on (or unplug them) if there's something I really want to hear, like if my Sims are trying for a baby, but my Sims don't do that very often.

The reason is so that I can hear what's going on in real life. I live with my mother, and I've never told her that I play The Sims, and I used to be so dismissive of computer games before I got hooked by my Sims, that I'd be very embarrassed if she found out. I'd also find it hard to explain why so many of my Sims (males as well as females) wear quite such revealing clothes!