Anyone else like to Listen in the Dark?

I also enjoy turning the lights off while listening. The whole concept is that your brain has less information to process with the eyes and can therefore focus in more on the information coming to the ears. Of course, to a much larger degree, we know this is true with blind people who develop an excellent sense of hearing.

I always keep my small 7 watt turntable light on so I don't bust my ass when I get up to change the record. I keep all the other lights off. Also, it helps me to read the record label when I want to cue up a particular track. Then I can keep just the one small light on. I can still see the tubes real good. I almost don't need a TT lamp because when they modded my preamp, they put in a blue power indicator LED that is so bright it seems like it could light a small city.
Albert, if you can stand some of The Glenmorangie, you're invited.

Take it one step further and cover (or better, disconnect) all those LED power lamps - I swear it will add 10' of depth to your soundstage!

Oh yes, I believe that our minds anticipate the effect of the room on sound. With the lights out we don't have as much conflict between the recordings acoustic venue and our own listening room. Bofus is right on, the less distraction the greater the ability to get lost in the music.

From a neurological point of view, there is a very good reason for this: the brain's visual centers have many orders of magnitude more cortex dedicated to them than do the aural centers. Closing your eyes (or listening in the dark) shuts down an enormous amount of neural processing, allowing your brain to spend a lot higher percentage of its energy on listening. Two other effects I've noticed from this phenomenon:
1) Music videos aren't about the music at all; they're about the video.
2) A lot of symphony-goers have never tried shutting their eyes during a performance, and when you do, they automatically assume you are sleeping. I close my eyes quite often, but never to sleep. You would be amazed how many people will ask you how your nap was.