Tidal contriva se vs Hansen The Prince V2

it could of course be something else than the loudspeakers, but
-NBS omega extreme 1 are very neutral and fast and surely not giving some undesired coloration
-Vac pre & amp are used by Alon Wolf for the final development of his magicos, so they should also be very neutral
-the MSB Platinum DAC IV with Denon?

Karelfd,
Avalon Indra (or Isis or Sentinel) are making a magnificient job on classical music either with solid state or tube, but they are not totally exempt of coloration, in effect there is an Avalon sound but which could be compared to the sound of a specific concert hall and not of some bad sintheziser ;-)

I found also Magico Mini II to make an excellent job, but of course missing some bass for a big symphonic piece

Well, no explanation in sight, then. It's interesting you mention Magico, speakers that I agree have their merits but I fail to grasp the hype around (especially something like Q5, now there's a speaker I would have to call a bad synthesizer from what I heard so far in a big bucks show environment).

On the other hand, I absolutely admire Avalon and not just for classical music. If I have to think of two others I like that seem voiced for classical, then Brodmann and Shahinian leap to my mind, where would those rank in your auditory world, then?

Anyway, a large part of the music I hear is actually piano (jazz as well as classical) and much of my decision in favour of the Contriva is actually based on exactly that kind of music. Call me stone-deaf if you want, but I still stick to that judgement. Again, though, I'd be interested to know where you heard that system? At your home, a dealer's, a show?

Something else I wanted to ask you in respect of your previous posting. Why would you say Contriva may be a speaker for audiophiles if it cannot render classical music at all?

Clavil's specific critical findings had me spending a good part of the weekend listening to strings (solo, small ensemble and massed):
Salvatore Accardo on Fonè/Signoricci vinyl (Paganini);
Stuttgarter Kammerorchester on Tacet vinyl (various composers, including the strange "Battalia à 10" by Biber: better make sure your system plays correct or this becomes downright unlistenable);
RSO Stuttgart on Hänssler cd (Haydn);
so that should clear any questions on artistic as well as recording quality.
Details of the gear used can be seen on my system page. I notified the neighbours that I would be pumping up the volume, way up now and then.

In short, I'm happy to say even when I deliberately tried to make my Contrivas sound hard or congested, let alone sound like a synthesizer on classical music, I couldn't manage to do so. (Make no mistake, they will pound and whine and screech when I play, say, Squarepusher working himself into a frenzy where they are meant to screech.)

Searching for cable influence, I tried two different looms. With Purist Venustas violins did sound "sweeter" than with Virtual Dynamics Revelation, and if I would mainly be listening to strings, Venustas would surely find their way back into the system. With piano Revelation has the edge in my system and is presently standard cabling between preamp, amp and speakers. I expressly also mention piano here since we actually chose the Contrivas i.a. because of the way they render piano, not in spite of it.

I guess to the OP this must appear confusing. Nevertheless, I must and can only describe what I hear and have had many occasions to confirm in comparison with a goodly number of other speakers over the last few years. To me, the Contrivas now in their 3rd generation remain class reference, no matter what you listen to, as references should.