Thank you gentlemen for your comments. It was only late until this morning that was decided on which side I was finally on. I am a sceptic by nature, generally after having been swept away by something ( would be sad, if I had not preserved this trait into my age ) once my head is above water again, I can put it though its paces. Should I think that I am still alluvial, - delusional, I get help. That was the case I my profession and it is more often than not the case in this our hobby. So after this longwinded preamble, let me get on with my story:
The first thing I did was to take the same LP an switch from TT1 to TT2 and had more or less the same effect. I then tried the same piece through my LAN digitally, where I have it on file from red book ripped. Idem. Then tired of putting in, taking out, I listened to something entirely different without the Poseidons and did not like it, because the music had the same strange washed out effect. It took me about an hour to find out its cause: My dedicated lines are fed through an UPS/Stabiliser because in that part of the world where I live, electricity is haphazard and mostly widely fluctuating. In fact I have two, one for the entire house and the other for the music. The latter was malfunctioning because, not for the first time either, some mouse had slipped through all the defenses and chewed on a wire. Country life is not without its surprises! Well once that was fixed, the music sounded right again without the Poseidons and different with them put in.
The Lp I was using, seemed to have been taken with some reverb, as if in a smallish hall, but with the Posies put in, the piano came over much more directly, more pinpointed, more concentrated. Everything sounded right, all the dynamic swings were there, but most of the reverb seemed gone. What now is "better"? Neither I decided, I liked both versions, simply, because the music per se, Goulds interpretation of it, seemed right. In both cases, the illusion of him and his piano as well as him humming along right within my listening space, remained undisturbed. All what the Posies had done to me was , that I had sort of changed seats and moved closer to the performance.
The same effect was repeated in the evening, as family and friends were crammed into my listening space and we listened to the first half of Bach's Christmas Oratorio, as we always do on X-mas eve, preferably live of course. This particular recording was on 6 lp sides and we listened to four of them. I always played one side with and one side without the Posies. The general impression was, also voiced by most of the others, that with the things on, voices were better understood. Of course that was not all, the Posies put the entire presentation of this tremendous work into another prespective, again moved you closer to it. So yes, on my rig they do work. Do I always want to "sit closer"? No! However, again, I liked both versions. I can easily live without those Posies, because already before them, the music was good. With them so far, it seemed not to be "better", but simply different. Important for me is, that they do not srew with "the music" and that so far they have not.
Perhaps they do indeed bring you closer to what is on the mastertape. Perhaps the contrary is true and they "shape" the sound away from the original. My only trouble here is, that I do not care two hoots about that, because I may not like what is on that tape. So probably I will sometimes have the luxury to listen with, and sometimes without the Posies and be free to let my ears command.
What still puzzles me however, was what I heard on my first listening. The washed out sound was real. Why did I not hear it the first time around and only when I had the Posies put in? Most probably I switched on concentrated listening only when the Posies were put in. Don't know, maybe also "mousie " had finishes its job just at the moment when part two of the trial started. Maybe it is all just another case of audiophilia nervosa. Who cares. Main thing the music is right again and "Merry X-mas", Hanukkah or whatever to you all !!
P.S.: An afterthought be permitted: Though not Swiss born, I hold a Swiss passport. "Neutrality" must have crept into my DNA"
