#2 Road towards the stereo setup of my dreams - Passive, here we come

We left off at my first proper stereo system which consisted of the Genelec 8020C powered monitors and Yamaha HS8S subwoofer all hooked up to the Onkyo PR-SC886.

Months passed without changing anything, but the more I listened to my system and started comparing against passive setups the more I was missing a slight coloration instead of the 'In your face' the Genelec's gave. Due to the amazing neutrality the Genelec's have, long listening sessions got fatiguing and even boring.
So my quest for passive speakers began!

About a month before this my friend (@xyzposter) introduced me to a Belgian speaker brand called Floating (Synthese). I listened to their smallest floorstanders called the Floating Cameleon Duchess (mk I) and they were just superb. Clear mids and highs but with just enough warmth and character, that what the Genelec's were missing and despite their size pretty fulfilling in the lows.
I started keeping an eye out for the Floating Cameleon speakers but without luck.

Picture from Floating's website

Some weeks passed and I got word about an audio shop in the neighbourhood having a new owner and only selling a few brands. I knew the previous owner sold the cameleon speakers so I went to the shop. In the shop I only found Floatings Cameleon Voice, a center channel speaker, so I asked an employee that also worked there before the ownership shift about the Floating speakers. At first he was convinced they were all sold out, he didn't even know about the center, but after a while he invited me to check out the stock from the previous owner. After some looking arround we found a SEALED pair of Duchess's and a pair of Tricam's with subcam (Bookshelf speaker from the same brand). It was almost closing time and they invited me to have a listen to the speakers the day after.
New day, woke up early and rushed towards the shop. Everything was set up and ready for my listening session. As expected everything was like my first experience with the speakers so I was hooked! All I was scared off was the price, when the duchess's were released they had a MSRP of +/- 1699.00€. So I asked what the price was and he said because it was stock from the previous owner and they no longer 'legally' sold the brand he could give it for 500€. I totally flipped inside and was like, maybe I can take the whole lot for a steal. So we negotiated for the Duchess's, Tricam with subcam and the Voice center for 'just' 900€! A serious discount on the original MSRP. The only thing missing was the retail box for the center speaker.

Now that I had my speakers I was in need of some amplification because the Onkyo was a Pre-Pro receiver with balanced outputs. I did some talking arround and another friend of mine (which sadly didn't join steemit yet) had a receiver laying around. I quickly rushed to get the amp and hooked eveything up.

Probably the most ghetto setup I had for a week or two. But boy was it a pleasure to finally have that passion and warmth I personally was missing from the Genelec's.

If you want to read my privious post in this series you can find it here:
#1 How it all began

Thanks for reading!