R.I.P: Rest In Peace Roy Johnson, Green Mountain Audio's Genius


All,

It is with heavy heart that I bring to you the heart breaking news of the passing of one of audio's true geniuses. Roy Johnson passed away this week after a long battle with cancer. He was a truly brilliant speaker designer, and true friend, and an amazing person. For those of us lucky to have known him as customers or friends we know he was infinitely committed to lending a hand, imparting his wisdom, solving problems and creating some of the most amazing loud speakers ever heard.  There were often gremlins in my system not centered around his loudspeakers and Roy would literally drop everything and help me trace down problems, while all the time educating and teaching me, not for gain, not for money, but because that's who Roy Johnson was. 

He will be greatly missed for his humor, his dedication, and his selflessness in audio and in life.

Rest in Peace Dear Friend,

You Are Loved
128x128birdfan
I had a pair of the original Diamanté’s in green with black bases.  I visited Roy at his shop in Colorado Springs.  He was a very knowledgeable and entertaining guy.  He spoke of his crossover designs in terms of mathematical models.  He was always working on the perfect crossover.  Roy liked to play music loud and hard hitting selections with a lot of impact, my first introduction to the music of Rusted Root.
 I had my Diamanté’s upgraded to series 2, then to series 3.  The series 2 iteration was the best.  Series 3 was slightly warmer but lost some of the magic of series 2.  There are certain musical selections that they recreated better than anything I’ve heard since such as the the previously mentioned Rusted Root and Pat Benetar.  Ultimately, they weren’t the speaker for me and my room.  They didn’t quite have the lower end weight and warmth for the hard bop jazz I like.
I sold the Diamanté’s here on Audiogon.  I hope the person who purchased them is still enjoying Roy’s creation.
Roy made some unusual looking speakers with synthetic marble, the Diamanté’s easily the best looking of the lot.  
The audio world lost a great guy and innovative designer.
RIP Roy... Wow, what a shock!  I just spoke with him the first week in July, and he seemed in great spirits, full of energy and info as always. Roy was always willing to talk your ear off for an hour or two with advice, info, and whatever he could help you with to make your system sound it's best.  He had a pair of Chroma HX's almost finished for me... they were supposed to ship mid July.  That will not happen at this point unfortunately.  The speakers are insignificant in comparison to the subject matter here.  Such a loss to the audio community and such a shock.  I wish his family the best.  I knew he was sick for a while, but I thought he was doing better and on his way to good health. Very sad indeed. RIP Roy, you are missed.  
I want to share the future logo of GMA with the community. I’ve been rolling around the idea of posting this for a while, being unsure if it's appropriate for a memorial thread. However, I think GMA patrons would be interested in what they would have seen on all their future gear. I also think it’s a sort of waypoint on the path ahead where Roy was taking the company. I imagine he would want it to be seen.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1GqkDHRcB6Vpugy_6an3r8duuH5Ilppjn

I should add that I am not looking for input / compliments / criticism on the design here. I’m sharing this with hesitance because I want the thread to remain focused on memorializing Roy and GMA. I’m hoping this just adds another color in the details of the tapestry.
I too will miss Roy and the contributions he made in speaker designs.  He had some good ideas that led to some nice sounding speakers.  I hope he had a legacy plan so his ideas and designs will not be loss.
This was sad news. Although I never met him, he seemed like a great guy. My condolences to his family and friends. I need replacement woofers , payed for 2 new woofers and had been texting him back and forth for a while. He was in the process of finding a matched set for my speakers when I suddenly couldn't get in touch with him. Found out he had passed. Now I don't know what the proper thing to do is. I hope some one steps up to finish his buisiness. I see that the Green Mountain web site is down. RIP Roy Johnson.