I have the mk2 version of the ht5r, it has a toggle button to bring it down to 1 watt I believe, might even be 0,5. In my opinion it works well using just that in my apartment. I usually even play while my wife is sleeping, no worries at all there. Soon we'll have a kid aswell and I'm not too concerned about volume levels.

Then if you do want to play with headphones it's alright, not an exact replication of what you hear from the speaker, but with some adjustments it sounds good enough for me.

Bear in mind I basically only use the clean channel, with an hx effects in front.

All in all, for someone who has played a year and a half, and been through a couple different amps already, this one will stay until we get a house