My stereo is my living room. I work nights and come home to a quiet, pitch black house and listen to music in the dark or with a little mood lighting. Every session is magical in it's own way and listening any other way for me is anticlimactic. Sometimes I will fire the system up during the day for others, but my listening is always in the dark eyes closed with the goosebumps firing on all cylinders.
A free tweak revisited
I am absolutely positive that this subject has been discussed before, but last night as I was listening I was reflecting on how big a difference (for me) turning the lights off and (probably redundantly) closing my eyes makes. My listening room is a quite near field environment, but with the lights off/eyes shut I hear the illusion of a sound stage wider than the boundaries of the room with height and some depth. (However, the sound stage I get is not as deep as it is wide.) Opening my eyes and looking at the speakers so close to me is kind of like sticking a pin in the balloon.