Very sorry and saddened to hear the news - thanks birdfan for letting us know
I knew he had been ailing for some time but did not realize it had gotten worse, though I haven’t spoken with him in sometime. I believe his birthday would have been on July 27
I was fortunate to have had many long, informative and fun long distance conversations with him over years even before I bought a pair of Callistos (which I still use). He was particularly good at phone based customer service being able to guide you long distance - often wondered how he made the time. I recall he had even set up a demo for me with one of his customers in suburban London since he didn’t have a dealer in the area at that time. I obviously didn’t know this person but Roy was the common factor and that was sufficient for this person to throw open his house and his system for me to evaluate the Callistos before I decided to buy a pair! Since then, I have returned the favor by allowing my speakers to be used as demo for other aspirants in my neck of the woods - I believe it was just something we did for Roy - power of the Green Mountain family.
I know he had some interesting designs in the pipeline but not sure if those made it to commercial production - maybe his failing health didn’t allow him to complete those.
RIP Roy - You will be missed |
Sad to hear the news ...
Posting on here to represent the far flung customer base to whom Roy had managed to reach out to with his fantastic speakers. I still have and enjoy my Eos HX speakers which have been a constant in my setup for the past few years.
Roy will be missed. May his soul rest in peace!
Sincerely,
Nikhil Nayak
Hyderabad, India
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Man, this was a bummer. I met Roy earlier this year after asking Jeff Rowland some of the speakers he liked. Jeff knew him pretty well I guess. So we had just met and also had some hour plus long conversations over the phone about how stuff worked and things he had figured out to overcome this or that .. he showed me drawings that I'll post here of possible of his newest speaker that was a floorstander I was completely amazed by. Ive never seen a design aesthetic look like it before. It combined Art Deco with 2001 a Space Odyssey. Almost a humanoid shape looking up at you. I gave him a verbal order on the spot. I said every time I go to listen, my little buddies will be there to greet me..
It was clear to see and feel his passion. Also being an audio passionate myself , I could get caught up in his enthusiasm and somehow wanted to help him get his company rocking and rolling. I knew he was short handed and had been struggling with O2 levels though he also told me he was on the mend. I wondered how he could deal with the altitude, but I dont even know what it is in Colorado Springs.. He absolutely left a memory with me. If anyone is close with his Mother, close enough to go by his shop, I believe he had the molds for the new speaker made, someone ought to build them to celebrate his life. I spoke with him man, must have been days before he passed. I also noticed he did not return my text which was uncommon. Then I got a call from Jeff to let me know he had transitioned. Well hes a lot more unencumbered now.
I'm really glad I got to catch a little of his energy before he took off.
Blessings to the energy we called Roy Johnson |
Really sorry to hear about this.
I've heard Continuum 3's many times at a friend's house, great talent, great human.
R.I.P.
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Aww, Very sad. I have had a few discussions with Roy over the years. Best customer service I have ever experienced in this field. He took the time to detail out the smallest things, that end up being the big things. Late last year I got 2 of his latest woofers for the Callisto speakers and he was just perfect in walking me through the replacement;
Requiescat in pace
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I'm in shock.
I had been trying to get in touch with him via text, email, and phone over the past week, and became increasingly concerned because he wasn't getting back to me, which is highly uncharacteristic. Just last night I decided to google his name on a whim, just in case, and my heart sank when I saw this post as one of the immediate results.
I've known Roy for more than 10 years, and we've maintained regular contact over the past 3. The friendship we developed bridged the divide between personal and business. I learned so much from him over the past decade, I can only be humbly thankful to have shared time with him through our many conversations. I always referred to him as my 'audio guru'. I think half of my current main system consists of components from his recommendations, and likewise is positioned based on his insight.
Like others have said, he always kindly and openly talked about all things audio related, seemingly mastering a deep understanding of the engineering behind many components. To say he was generous with his time would be an understatement. When you spoke with him, you could just feel that he was the 'real deal' -- a person who at heart just really loved music and sound reproduction at the core of his being. His discoveries in speaker design were touching ground on new territory... he was truly a pioneer in his field, and I believe one of a kind and without equal.
As such, he was also a sole keeper of great knowledge. He and I spoke in depth about the prospects of passing this on in some form so his findings wouldn't be lost to this world. We had in depth discussions about prospective plans to work together on creating a series of short, creative, visually charged videos illustrating his findings and sound principles, which would be freely available on his new website for all who were interested to learn from. I think the fact that he wanted to do this speaks to his character.
One of the saddest parts of his passing for me is that I don't think he had the time to pass most of his knowledge forward. He didn't expect to pass so soon... I doubt anybody did. I spoke with him just a couple weeks ago and he was feeling good! He had been running into bottlenecks with his health sporadically over the past few years... From what I understood, it was mostly having to do with getting proper oxygen supply to his lungs. He had a health snag a couple months back, but had bounced back and was excited about his work and that he was more energetic and able to move around the shop again. He was also excited about having hired a few new people recently, including a new engineer which we spoke very highly of.
To conclude on a positive note, I'd like to share a snippet of a text he sent me a month ago.
"Well, when you break barriers I think you must always look back to see if other questions could have been asked. I had not really ever thought precisely about what "no driver there" sounds like. It sounds like the artist on that recording, and with high emotion and 'swing' if there, even including 'subtle' changes to anything you can imagine. Except you are not Elton John, so how could you imagine what you have never heard him do? Until now. Always makes for a whole new level of appreciation.
After fixing the last existing phase shifts in the drivers, the XTC breakthrough, I remember listening to a famous reggae woman singing at an outdoor festival. The song and performance I thought I knew well. The speakers were already good enough to tell she sang with a lisp but not when just speaking. Now, I could easily tell it was from an underbite when she sang. Not the usual overbite behind many lisps.
Fine- more detail to hear.
But surprise to me was hearing the long-term quavering, a weakness she laid out in her song-- her boyfriend had left and didn't know what and it was tearing her apart- right then, right now. Made you choke up, whereas five minutes before you were thinking about mowing the lawn. Pretty obvious 'it's a great speaker.' But with new ribbon inserted, what I hear is no tweeter. Which is weird."
-Roy Johnson, June 30 2019
This is in reference to a new speaker I had purchased from him, which he had been working on for years, and had almost finished... The bulk of his work lately was in designing the tweeter, and as you will read, he would settle for nothing less than something truly stellar... a perfectionist at heart. He sounded truly happy with his results, and felt he had reached a point of completion after all the work he's done over the past years. These new models were the culmination of all his prior designs and research, new experiments, new discoveries, and the availability of brand new tweeter designs that were previously unavailable. I believe, in the end, he achieved a new level of sound reproduction just before he passed. It warms my heart to think that he was able to experience it and enjoy the fruits of his labor with deep satisfaction in a sort of unexpected final celebration on Earth.
Needless to say, I'm deeply saddened. This took me completely by surprise, and I'll forever miss my audio guru who held my hand as I navigated the depths of the art of truly great audio design. Goodbye old friend, you will be forever missed... may your new wings take you to concerts in the sky.
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If there is a heaven it it sounding much better now!! |
This is really sad!
I'd never heard his speakers, but Roy contributed a lot of great info in this forum and elsewhere, for us non-speaker-designers.
In fact I'd just this week read an article (in positive feedback, I think) from a speaker designer who listed Wilson speakers as being "time aligned."I rolled my eyes but was happy to see that Roy had shown up to clear the cobwebs about time/phase alignment and Wilson speakers.
Anyway, sorry to hear of his passing. I"m sure he left a lot of happy people in this world, listening to his speakers.
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Roy will be missed. He was working on a ribbon tweeter upgrade for the Eos RX along with his next floor standing model. I loved his updates. I think his approach to cabinet design is unparalleled. It makes me sad to know he’s not out there thinking about something great. |
Very sad to hear this news. I know he had been struggling, but he seemed to have stabilized, and I had not spoken to him in some time. I still have "Happy Ears" with hIs GMA Continuum 2 speakers with the latest HX crossover. I always enjoyed talking to him. He was always so knowledgeable and generous with his time and talent. I will miss him.
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I’ll echo others on the thread: this is both very sad, and for me, unexpected news. I did not realize that Roy was ill, and although we never met in person, his passionate and generous customer service had such an impact on me that I feel a real loss.
I have owned two pair of GMA speakers – Europa Max and Callisto. I still own the latter, and have two related anecdotes. When they arrived in my (then) home on Long Island, one of the enclosures had been chipped in transit. Roy replaced the damaged speaker within a week of the return.
Years later, when I was preparing to move abroad, I contacted him about the Callistos, mentioned that they had been in storage for some time, and also asked about any possible upgrades. He encouraged me to keep the speakers, provided detailed instructions for reinforcing the drivers, and sent replacement grills at no cost.
I also spent several hours, over the years, speaking with Roy about various ancillary issues. He was remarkably generous both with his time, and extraordinary knowledge.
RIP |
I'll miss you Roy. You spent so much time giving me advice about building my subs it was like you made them. I'll always remember how happy you were when you finally got your crossovers just right. And you sold me a pair of the Picos with that crossover so inexpensively because my older ones didn't have it. Rest in peace, and maybe we'll see each other on the other side. |
Wow sorry to hear this. Had a few conversations with him too. Always willing to talk about his speakers and lend a hand. Sorry to hear of his passing - RIP. |
Sorry to hear about this, Roy. You and I had many great and long conversations over the years. Thank you for the work you put in on my Continuum 3/HX speakers. I'm still not sure I had them working to their best when I sold them to someone who would hopefully appreciate them more. Roy, you had great enthusiasm for audio and your speaker designs. I always appreciated that. May you rest in peace. I feel bad that we will never get to meet in person as we had planned a couple times.
Bob
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Oh, my, I am dreadfully sorry to hear this! Roy and I had any number of wonderful conversations on the phone. He was generous with his time, really fun to talk to, and totally dedicated to his vision of time-coherent speaker design. He was working on a new version of the EOS that was really exciting. He was also quite the craftsman, creating the molds for his unique, synthetic marble speaker cabinets by hand. I am awfully sorry to hear about this! |
Sad news. I knew he had been having issues for some time. I spoke with him a month ago and he told me that his health was improving and was looking forward to finishing up new models. |
Thisis sad news I had owned hisspeakrrsback in 98, then when I had aAudio store in 2004 Roy spend many hours helping me get setup and his latest the Callisto was a smash hit and very popular in the U.K. R.I.P my friend . https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=13038.0 |
Oh my, so sorry to hear this. I enjoyed conversations with him and a set of his speakers. |
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I'll miss Roy as well-- a real gentleman from the old school.
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really sorry to hear this. I had no idea he was ill. I enjoyed conversations with him and hearing his speaker designs. |
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