Bright or Dim?

It’s psychosomatic.

I have a tall lamp right by my listening chair. It has two bulbs, one ordinary white bulb and one blue bulb (available at Home Depot). For listening sessions, I have the blue bulb lit only. It sets a good mood for music listening and the music really seems to sound better that way. Bright lights distract. The blue light slightly saturates the room and draws you into the music.

Frank

Nice. I will have to try that.

Could be a power line noise issue, dimmers are notoriously bad. :)

I found out that listening in the dark allowed me not only to 'see' the soundstage better, but to also concentrate on the music.
Bob

@gdnrbob 
“I found out that listening in the dark allowed me not only to 'see' the soundstage better, but to also concentrate on the music.”

Bob Sometimes I listen with only the lights of the gear on and that is a very pleasant listening experience. However I don’t listen to records that way. I will play my reel to reel in almost darkness tho. 

I have various lighting in my room. I have 3 of the tall paper shade lights I got from Ikea that have dimmers on the cords. These seem to be much quieter than the dimmers I have on the wall switches. With these lights I can get the room just perfect and I can also still see how to Change records etc. for streaming, CDs and tapes I do like to listen in almost darkness. My Mckintosh meters also add nice atmosphere as they are quite brite in a dark room.