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.
