#macro & close-up

[wiebkerost]

Novemberness

November impressions – macro and close-up, rain drops, long exposure, motion blur and bokeh effect November is named so because it used to be the ninth month in the Roman calendar. It is also known as Windmond, Wintermonat and Nebelung. It is the darkest month, hostile and chaotic. It brings storms, disorder and weird dreams. The November full moon is also known as freezing moon or frost moon…

[mattdobbins]

Photo of the Day : Ruby Red

🖼️📸 Photo of the Day! I took several nice pictures of this fearless little fella a couple years ago. He allowed my camera lens to get just inches from him. Hummingbirds are so beautiful and brave. 🕊️🐦✨

[clvssandfvshion]

a close-up macro photography of an iris with dew drops and reflection - selective focus, black, white, pink, & red

a close-up macro photography of an iris with dew drops and reflection – selective focus, black, white, pink, & red Buy Now

[johnhallettphotography]

Painting with light: Light duties

Warm Hands || © Average Images Warm Hands || © Average Images Warm Hands || © Average Images Once you have completed your set of Painting with light images, you can import those images from your camera into your chosen post-processing software. If you use presets during the import process, ensure they apply to every image in the set. Personally, I import into Adobe Lightroom. I can then…

[this-week-in-rust]

This Week in Rust 548

Hello and welcome to another issue of This Week in Rust! Rust is a programming language empowering everyone to build reliable and efficient software. This is a weekly summary of its progress and community. Want something mentioned? Tag us at @ThisWeekInRust on Twitter or @ThisWeekinRust on mastodon.social, or send us a pull request. Want to get involved? We love contributions.

This Week in Rust is openly developed on GitHub and archives can be viewed at this-week-in-rust.org. If you find any errors in this week's issue, please submit a PR.

Updates from Rust Community

Official

Faster linking times on nightly on Linux using rust-lld

Foundation

Announcing the First Set of RustConf 2024 Talks & Keynotes

Unsafe Rust in the Wild: Notes on the Current State of Unsafe Rust

Project/Tooling Updates

100 Exercises To Learn Rust

RustRover Is Released and Includes a Free Non-Commercial Option

Mysqlclient-sys 0.3.0: Bundled builds and updated bindings

Ratatui 0.26.3 is released! - a Rust library for cooking up terminal user interfaces

Maelstrom v0.9.0: Added local-only tests, LPT scheduling, and more

r3bl_terminal_async v0.5.3 released

Observations/Thoughts

Some notes on Rust, mutable aliasing and formal verification

Towards fast thread_local! context

Rust's iterators optimize nicely—and contain a footgun

Why We Forked Quinn

[audio] AMP - Rust in Production Podcast

[audio] Rama with Glen De Cauwsemaecker

[video] What's New in Rust 1.72-1.78 Rustacean Station marathon

[video] Rust 1.78.0: Last Rust News Video...ever?

[video] Devoxx UK - Rust 101: Understand the Hype

Rust Walkthroughs

Using Rust Macros for Custom VTables

NULL BITMAP Builds a Database #1: The Log is Literally the Database

The rainbow bridge between sync and async Rust

developerlife.com - Effective async Rust, non-blocking, concurrent, parallel, event loops, cancellation safety

Let's build a Load Balancer in Rust - Part 2

Miscellaneous

Free Rust ebooks for Amazon Kindle

Crate of the Week

This week's crate is ralertsinua, a text user interface for getting information about Russian air raids in Ukraine.

Thanks to Vladyslav Batyrenko for the suggestion!

Please submit your suggestions and votes for next week!

Call for Testing

An important step for RFC implementation is for people to experiment with the implementation and give feedback, especially before stabilization. The following RFCs would benefit from user testing before moving forward:

RFCs

No calls for testing were issued this week.

Rust

No calls for testing were issued this week.

Rustup

No calls for testing were issued this week.

If you are a feature implementer and would like your RFC to appear on the above list, add the new call-for-testing label to your RFC along with a comment providing testing instructions and/or guidance on which aspect(s) of the feature need testing.

Call for Participation; projects and speakers

CFP - Projects

Always wanted to contribute to open-source projects but did not know where to start? Every week we highlight some tasks from the Rust community for you to pick and get started!

Some of these tasks may also have mentors available, visit the task page for more information.

* [hyperswitch - [FEATURE] : add pagination support for customers list] (https://github.com/juspay/hyperswitch/issues/3746) * [hyperswitch - [FEATURE] : [GlobalPayments] Currency Unit Conversion] (https://github.com/juspay/hyperswitch/issues/2227) * [hyperswitch - [FEATURE] : Add support for sending additional metadata in the MessagingInterface] (https://github.com/juspay/hyperswitch/issues/4472)

If you are a Rust project owner and are looking for contributors, please submit tasks here.

CFP - Speakers

Are you a new or experienced speaker looking for a place to share something cool? This section highlights events that are being planned and are accepting submissions to join their event as a speaker.

Rust Argentina June 2024 | Closes 2024-05-31 | Buenos Aires, AR | Event date: 2024-06-04

EuroRust 2024 | Closes 2024-06-03 | Vienna, Austria & online | Event date: 2024-10-10

Scientific Computing in Rust 2024 | Closes 2024-06-14 | online | Event date: 2024-07-17 - 2024-07-19

Rust Ukraine 2024 | Closes 2024-07-06 | Online + Ukraine, Kyiv | Event date: 2024-07-27

Conf42 Rustlang 2024 | Closes 2024-07-22 | online | Event date: 2024-08-22

If you are an event organizer hoping to expand the reach of your event, please submit a link to the submission website through a PR to TWiR.

Updates from the Rust Project

364 pull requests were merged in the last week

add x86_64-unknown-linux-none target

enable rust-lld on nightly x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu

rustc_hir_typeck: Account for skipped_ref_pats in expr_use_visitor

rustc_resolve cleanups

actually use the #[do_not_recommend] attribute if present

add #[inline] to float Debug fallback used by cfg(no_fp_fmt_parse)

add fn into_raw_with_allocator to Rc/Arc/Weak

add an experimental feature gate for global registration

add and use generics.is_empty() and generics.is_own_empty, rather than using generics' attributes

also expand weak alias tys inside consts inside expand_weak_alias_tys

android: use posix_memalign for aligned allocations

avoid using aligned_alloc; posix_memalign is better-behaved

check whether the next_node is else-less if in get_return_block

coverage: CoverageIdsInfo::mcdc_bitmap_bytes is never needed

coverage: memoize and simplify counter expressions

defrost RUST_MIN_STACK=ice rustc hello.rs

delegation: implement list delegation

don't ICE because recomputing overflow goals during find_best_leaf_obligation causes inference side-effects

don't do post-method-probe error reporting steps if we're in a suggestion

fix ICE in non-operand aggregate_raw_ptr intrinsic codegen

fix println! ICE when parsing percent prefix number

fix suggestion in E0373 for !Unpin coroutines

fix the dedup error because of spans from suggestion

improve error message: missing ; in macro_rules

include line tables in compiler profile

lldb-formatters: use StdSliceSyntheticProvider for &str

make EvalCtxt generic over InferCtxtLike

make crashes dump mir to build dir

never type unsafe lint improvements

note for E0599 if shadowed bindings has the method

only find segs chain for missing methods when no available candidates

only make GAT ambiguous in match_projection_projections considering shallow resolvability

refactor: add rustc-perf submodule to src/tools

report better WF obligation leaf obligations in new solver

style-guide: when breaking binops handle multi-line first operand better

suggest setting lifetime in borrowck error involving types with elided lifetimes

temporarily revert to NonZeroUsize in rustc-abi to fix building on stable

track cycle participants per root

use a proper probe for shadowing impl

use a single static for all default slice Arcs

warn against changes in opaque lifetime captures in 2024

miri: adjust Allocation Bytes used by Miri to custom MiriAllocBytes

miri: directly implement native exception raise methods in miri

miri: give FileDescription::{read, write} access to the MiriInterpCx

miri: ignore the Helix configuration directory

miri: make basic things work on Android

miri: properly print error in 'cargo miri setup --print-sysroot'

miri: support aligned_alloc for unixes

miri: use throw_unsup_format! instead of returning ENOTSUP in the mmap shim

miri: use a little arg-parsing helper for miri-script

remove libc from MSVC targets

optimize character escaping

alloc: implement FromIterator for Box<str>

implemented Default for Arc<str>

fix read_exact and read_buf_exact for &[u8] and io:Cursor

fix assertion when attempting to convert f16 and f128 with as

inline Duration construction into Duration::from_{secs, millis, micros, nanos}

remove bound checks from BorrowedBuf and BorrowedCursor methods

optimize inplace collection of Vec

make Debug impl for Term simpler

invert comparison in uN::checked_sub

add f128 float to integer conversion functions

add addition, subtraction, multiplication, and compare operations for f128

add powi fo f16 and f128

add v0 symbol mangling for f16 and f128

re-add From<f16> for f64

cargo: add special check-cfg lint config for the unexpected_cfgs lint

cargo: fix warning about unused Permissions

cargo: fix warning output in build_with_symlink_to_path_dependency_with_build_script_in_git

cargo: fix: make path dependencies with the same name stays locked

cargo: fix: support IPv6-only network for cargo fix

cargo: load libsecret by its SONAME, libsecret-1.so.0

cargo: preserve file permissions on unix during write_atomic

cargo: silence warnings running embedded unittests

rustdoc: don't strip items with inherited visibility in AliasedNonLocalStripper

rustdoc: negative impls are not notable

add - (stdin) support in rustdoc

clippy: assigning_clones: move to pedantic so it is allow by default

clippy: doc_lazy_continuation: do not warn on End events

clippy: add configuration option for ignoring panic!() in tests

clippy: don't lint path statements in no_effect

clippy: don't lint missing_panic_docs for panics in const environments

clippy: improve match_same_arms messages, enable rustfix test

clippy: less aggressive needless_borrows_for_generic_args

clippy: make sure the msrv for const_raw_ptr_deref is met when linting missing_const_for_fn

clippy: manually set library paths in .github/driver.sh

rust-analyzer: fix metrics workflow not actually updating the toolchain

rust-analyzer: fix: don't emit --keep-going for custom build script commands

rust-analyzer: fix: expand macro recursively expands both fp-like and attribute macros when intertwined

rust-analyzer: fix: extract mod to file should respect path attribute

rust-analyzer: fix: hash file contents to verify whether file actually changed

Rust Compiler Performance Triage

Fairly quiet week with the exception of a very large improvement coming from the switch to rust-lld on nightly Linux. This can have very large impacts on benchmarks where linking dominates the build time (e.g., ripgrep, exa, small binaries like hello-world). Aside from that change, there were a few small regressions that were either deemed worth it or are still being investigated.

Triage done by @rylev. Revision range: 9105c57b..1d0e4afd

Summary:

(instructions:u) mean range count Regressions ❌ (primary) 0.7% [0.1%, 2.5%] 30 Regressions ❌ (secondary) 0.5% [0.2%, 0.8%] 5 Improvements ✅ (primary) -30.4% [-71.7%, -0.4%] 35 Improvements ✅ (secondary) -25.6% [-70.9%, -0.5%] 75 All ❌✅ (primary) -16.1% [-71.7%, 2.5%] 65

4 Regressions, 1 Improvement, 4 Mixed; 2 of them in rollups 66 artifact comparisons made in total

Full report here

Approved RFCs

Changes to Rust follow the Rust RFC (request for comments) process. These are the RFCs that were approved for implementation this week:

MaybeDangling

RFC: New range types for Edition 2024

Merge RFC 3484: Unsafe extern blocks

RFC: cargo-script

Final Comment Period

Every week, the team announces the 'final comment period' for RFCs and key PRs which are reaching a decision. Express your opinions now.

RFCs

No RFCs entered Final Comment Period this week.

Tracking Issues & PRs

Rust

[disposition: merge] change method resolution to constrain hidden types instead of rejecting method candidates

[disposition: merge] Tracking Issue for asm_const

[disposition: merge] rustdoc: Add support for --remap-path-prefix

[disposition: merge] Make std::env::{set_var, remove_var} unsafe in edition 2024

[disposition: merge] Tracking Issue for slice_flatten

[disposition: merge] Edition 2024: Make ! fall back to !

[disposition: merge] Stabilize div_duration

[disposition: merge] Panic if PathBuf::set_extension would add a path separator

[disposition: merge] Support C23's Variadics Without a Named Parameter

[disposition: merge] Stabilize LazyCell and LazyLock

[disposition: merge] Turn remaining non-structural-const-in-pattern lints into hard errors

[disposition: merge] Edition 2024: don't special-case diverging blocks

Cargo

No Cargo Tracking Issues or PRs entered Final Comment Period this week.

Language Team

No Language Team RFCs entered Final Comment Period this week.

Language Reference

[disposition: merge] document guarantee about evaluation of associated consts and const blocks

Unsafe Code Guidelines

No Unsafe Code Guideline RFCs entered Final Comment Period this week.

New and Updated RFCs

[new] [RFC] Add #[export_ordinal(n)] attribute

[new] [RFC] Add #[diagnostic::blocking] attribute

[new] Guard Patterns

Upcoming Events

Rusty Events between 2024-05-22 - 2024-06-19 🦀

Virtual

2024-05-23 | Virtual (Berlin, DE) | OpenTechSchool Berlin + Rust Berlin

Rust Hack and Learn | Mirror: Rust Hack n Learn Meetup

2024-05-23 | Virtual (Israel) | Rust in Israel

Web development in Rust using Rocket (Hebrew)

2024-05-24 | Virtual (Rotterdam, NL)| Bevy Game Development

Bevy Meetup #4

2024-05-28 | Virtual (Dallas, TX, US) | Dallas Rust

Last Tuesday

2024-05-28 & 2024-05-28 | Virtual | Mainmatter

Remote Workshop: Telemetry for Rust APIs – you can't fix what you can't see (fee)

2024-05-29 | Virtual | Training 4 Programmers LLC

Enums, Structs, and Traits - Essential Building Blocks of Rust Programming

2024-05-30 | Virtual + In Person (Barcelona, ES) | Mainmatter & BcnRust

Rust for the web, Barcelona 2024

2024-05-30 | Virtual (Charlottesville, NC, US) | Charlottesville Rust Meetup

Crafting Interpreters in Rust Collaboratively

2024-06-04 | Virtual | Women in Rust

Lunch & Learn: A Creative Thinker's Programming Language

2024-06-04 | Virtual (Buffalo, NY) | Buffalo Rust Meetup

Buffalo Rust User Group

2024-06-05 | Virtual (Indianapolis, IN, US) | Indy Rust

Indy.rs - with Social Distancing

2024-06-06 | Virtual | Code Mavens

Rust Maven Workshop: Your first contribution to an Open Source Rust project

2024-06-06 | Virtual (Berlin, DE) | OpenTechSchool Berlin + Rust Berlin

Rust Hack and Learn | Mirror: Rust Hack n Learn Meetup

2024-06-11 | Virtual (Dallas, TX, US) | Dallas Rust

Second Tuesday

2024-06-13 | Virtual (Charlottesville, NC, US) | Charlottesville Rust Meetup

Crafting Interpreters in Rust Collaboratively

2024-06-13 | Virtual (Nürnberg, DE) | Rust Nuremberg

Rust Nürnberg online

2024-06-18 | Virtual (Washington, DC, US) | Rust DC

Mid-month Rustful

2024-06-19 | Virtual (Vancouver, BC, CA) | Vancouver Rust

Rust Study/Hack/Hang-out

Africa

2024-06-01 | Kampala, UG | Rust Circle Kampala

Rust Circle Meetup

Asia

2024-05-22 | Singapore, SG | SG Rust Meetup

SG Rustaceans! Updated - SG Rust Meetup at CraftsforGreen Whole Studio

Europe

2024-05-22 | Leiden, NL | Future-proof Software Development by FreshMinds

Coding Dojo Session

2024-05-23 | Bern, CH | Rust Bern

2024 Rust Talks Bern #2

2024-05-23 | Łodz, PL | Mobica

Zapisz się na warsztat Rust / Embedded w Łodzi! / What's all the fuss about Rust?

2024-05-23 | Manchester, UK | Rust Manchester

Rust Manchester May Code Night

2024-05-23 | Salzburg, AT | SRUG: Salzburg Rust User Group

SRUG: Salzburg Rust User Group

2024-05-24 | Bordeaux, FR | Rust Bordeaux

Rust Bordeaux #3: Discussions

2024-05-25 | Stockholm, SE | Stockholm Rust

Ferris' Fika Forum #3 [Embedded lab edition]

2024-05-25 | Tampere, FI | Finland Rust-lang Group

May Meetup

2024-05-28 - 2024-05-30 | Berlin, DE | Oxidize

Oxidize Conf 2024

2024-05-30 | Amsterdam, NL | Rust Developers Amsterdam Group

Rust Developer Meetup @ Avalor AI

2024-05-30 | Barcelona, ES | Mainmatter & BcnRust

Rust for the web, Barcelona 2024

2024-05-30 | Berlin, DE | Rust Berlin

Rust and Tell - Title

2024-05-30 | Copenhagen, DK | Copenhagen Rust Community

Rust meetup #47 sponsored by Microsoft!

2024-05-30 | Oslo, NO | Rust Oslo

Rust Hack'n'Learn at Kampen Bistro

2024-05-30 | Vienna, AT | Rust Vienna

Rust Vienna Meetup - May - Rust Backend 101

2024-06-05 | Hamburg, DE | Rust Meetup Hamburg

Rust Hack & Learn June 2024

2025-06-06 | Vilnius, LT | Rust Vilnius

Enjoy our second Rust and ZIG event

2024-06-19 - 2024-06-24 | Zürich, CH | RustFest Zürich

RustFest Zürich 2024

North America

2024-05-22 | Austin, TX, US | Rust ATX

Rust Lunch - Fareground

2024-05-25 | Chicago, IL, US | Deep Dish Rust

Rust Talk Double Feature

2024-05-30 | Mountain View, CA, US | Mountain View Rust Meetup

Rust Meetup at Hacker Dojo

2024-05-31 | Boston, MA, US | Boston Rust Meetup

Boston Common Rust Lunch, May 31

2024-06-08 | Somerville, MA, US | Boston Rust Meetup

Porter Square Rust Lunch, Jun 8

2024-06-13 | Spokane, WA, US | Spokane Rust

Monthly Meetup: Topic TBD!

2024-06-18 | San Francisco, CA, US | San Francisco Rust Study Group

Rust Hacking in Person

Oceania

2024-05-28 | Sydney, NSW, AU | Rust Sydney

a demo 🤯 & a lightning ⚡show ✨

South America

2024-06-06 | Buenos Aires, AR | Rust en Español | Rust Argentina

Juntada de Junio

If you are running a Rust event please add it to the calendar to get it mentioned here. Please remember to add a link to the event too. Email the Rust Community Team for access.

Jobs

Please see the latest Who's Hiring thread on r/rust

Quote of the Week

In other words, I do not want the compiler to just insert code to uphold the bare minimum guarantees, I want the compiler to check my work for me and assist me in developing an algorithm I can confidently assert is right.

– without boats

Thanks to scottmcm for the suggestion!

Please submit quotes and vote for next week!

This Week in Rust is edited by: nellshamrell, llogiq, cdmistman, ericseppanen, extrawurst, andrewpollack, U007D, kolharsam, joelmarcey, mariannegoldin, bennyvasquez.

Email list hosting is sponsored by The Rust Foundation

Discuss on r/rust

[coinmystique]

Binance and Bitcoin. Supply: AdobeBinance has misplaced an enormous share of its whole buying and selling volumes since ending its zero charges on Bitcoin pairs and in wake of the US Commodity Futures and Buying and selling Fee (CFTC)’s lawsuit towards the agency.That’s in keeping with the latest blog post by crypto analytics agency Kaiko, which says that Binance’s market share has dropped by a shocking 16%.That being stated, Kaiko notes that Binance stays far and away the biggest crypto change on the planet by volumes, sustaining a 54% market dominance.Not one of the 17 different exchanges analyzed by the crypto analytics agency managed to say an outsized proportion of the up-for-grabs market share versus one another.That’s as a result of, in keeping with Kaiko, “Binance’s excess volume largely vanished”.US Regulators Are Amping Up Stress on US Crypto CompaniesThe CFTC announced a lawsuit against Binance final week, claiming that the agency has been illegally working as a US commodity change.However US regulators have been going after different main US-based crypto gamers.Coinbase was recently issued a Wells Notice by the US Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC) relating to its securities regulation violations.A Wells Discover is basically a warning that the company will quickly take regulatory motion.Different corporations have been shuttering US operations. Final month, Kraken closed its staking program after paying a effective to the SEC for alleged securities violations.And final week, Bittrex shuttered is US operations of their entirety amid regulatory uncertainty.Binance.US Gaining Floor on CoinbaseRegardless of the falling market share of its international father or mother firm Binance, the cryptocurrency change’s US platform referred to as Binance.US has been gaining floor on Coinbase not too long ago.In accordance with Kaiko, throughout Q1, “Coinbase’s market share dropped from a weekly average of 60% to just 49%... Surprisingly, Binance.US has largely picked up the slack, despite a lawsuit against the global entity. Its market share has tripled from just 8% to more than 24%”.That might recommend that Binance’s latest lack of market share may need extra to do with the elimination of zero buying and selling charges on BTC pairs than fears about regulatory stress within the US.In any case, if US regulatory issues have been weighing on Binance buying and selling volumes, Binance.US can be the primary platform the place you'd anticipate these volumes to drop off.Crypto Buying and selling Volumes Dip, Worrying Signal For Crypto?The top of zero-fee buying and selling on BTC pairs on Binance has coincided with a considerable dip within the cryptocurrency market’s total buying and selling volumes.In accordance with crypto knowledge and information analytics agency The Block, the seven-day shifting common of volumes was round $22.5 billion as of Monday, down from round $46 billion in mid-March.Decrease volumes come at a time when Bitcoin and far of the broader cryptocurrency market have been going largely sideways, albeit with an upside bias, in latest weeks.Some may view decrease volumes as a bearish signal that demand is fading, however many analysts anticipate macro tailwinds to maintain crypto demand underpinned for the foreseeable future.These macro tailwinds embody a mixture of 1) bets that the Fed received’t do way more tightening and can quickly be chopping (which is weighing on the US greenback and US yields, which is nice for crypto), and a couple of) issues a couple of banking crisis, which is pushing up demand for a decentralized various monetary system (which crypto represents).

[deebeeus]

Well it's Monday (again grumble grumble...) and that can only mean ONE thing: GUITAR MACROS!

1964 Fender Champ Pilot & Fuse.

[mike13mt]

Hooked On Tomatoes by glegere1

[aloulou-travel]

Lily Bud B&W by evonoon

[theframelines]

Lily Bud B&W by evonoon

[dpb-365]

309/365

Some more playing with the macro lens. 

[sdbphotographyblogposts]

Deceased Fly Why a deceased fly you might be asking yourself which is a good question.I had been dusting in the bay window and there stood a blue bottle had it succumb to something I don’t no it was just standing there so I thought why…

[pxpx500-gif]

Banana and darkness

[johnhallettphotography]

Blooming garden

With June just around the corner the flowers are blooming almost as well as the weeds are growing. Here are a few photographs from another early morning walk around the garden; Meadow crane’s-bill Geranium || © Average Images Oriental poppy Papaver || © Average Images Yellow daylily Hemerocallis liloasphodelus || © Average Images Siberian iris Iris sibirica || © Average Images Giant onion…

[taww]

First Take Review: Gryphon Essence Preamplifier & Stereo Amplifier

Okay, let’s get this out of the way: with a combined retail of over USD $40k (and that doesn’t include another $6k for the optional Zena DAC module), The Gryphon’s Essence preamplifier and stereo amplifier are by far the most expensive electronics I’ve ever had in my home! They might be the Danish firm’s entry point into separates, but that’s akin to calling a $146k Aston Martin Vantage “entry level.” There was a time in the not-so-distant past when spending such sums of money on stereo gear struck me as pointless excess. Perhaps I’ve been numbed by flipping through too many issues of The Absolute Sound or walking the halls of an audio show; perhaps I’m just entering a life stage (mid-life crisis, anyone?) where I’m allowing myself to indulge in such luxuries. Whatever the case may be, I’ve now had the good fortune of several months with the Essence combo, and despite a number of people prodding me for this review it’s been quite difficult to put into words how they perform. Why? Because every time I sit down to do the “work” of reviewing I just end up getting sucked into the music and forget to do the reviewing bit! But, here goes...

The arrival of the Gryphon components was a case of one thing leading to another. My first experience was when I strolled into Gryphon’s room at RMAF 2018. After being disappointed by so many other mega-buck systems at the show, I was delighted that this one actually sounded like music! Frankly, a lot of über-expensive show systems landed on my ears like amusical hi-fi effects or whimsical fancies of what some people think music should sound like, rather than an actual musical performance. Like other big systems, the Gryphon rig was imposing and fancy-looking, but with a decidedly purposeful, even stark, aesthetic. And the sound - so tangible and luscious, maybe a little dark and brooding, but in a way that connected me emotionally to the recorded performance rather than distracting me with sonic affect. 

At the time I was happily running the Valvet A4 Mk.II monoblocks, and also had @mgd-taww​’s Pass Labs XA30.5 at my disposal. Both delivered the pure and colorful musical flavors of Class A amplification, and both are superb amps. But things got thrown for a bit of a loop when I settled on the Audiovector SR 6 Avantgarde Arreté speakers as my new reference. I had auditioned them at AudioVision SF with the Gryphon Diablo 300 integrated amp ($16k) and the sound gave up nothing to high-quality separates - big, bold and dynamic with tremendous poise and nuance. Coming back to the Pass and Valvet amplifiers (coupled with a Pass Labs XP10 line stage) certainly wasn’t a let-down, but they didn’t have quite the same level synergy with the Audiovectors which sounded more complete and visceral with the Gryphon integrated. 

This combined with the strong aural memories from the RMAF room led to a call to Gryphon’s US distributor, Philip O’Hanlon and Pandora Pang of On a Higher Note. Philip acknowledged that the Diablo was indeed excellent but teased that Gryphon had recently introduced a new line of separates worth consideration. The Essence had just arrived in the States and he had one more set in stock if I were so inclined... and next thing I know, a pallet loaded with what my wife lovingly referred to as “an illegal arms shipment” landed at our doorstep.

Serious crates for serious gear

Like all separates in The Gryphon’s 35-year heritage dating back to the original DM100 amplifier, the Essence line features pure Class A operation with minimal negative feedback, but brings it at a lower price point ($22,990) with more conservative aesthetics and practical packaging. Prior to the Essence, to get a Gryphon amp one had to shell out anywhere from $39k for the Antileon EVO to $57k for the flagship Mephisto (double those if going for monoblocks). The tradeoff is a lower power rating - just 50wpc, albeit in pure class A and doubling into 4 ohms and again into 2 ohms - so you’ll want to pair it with a reasonably efficient speaker. The Essence preamp meanwhile is a repackaging of the Zena preamplifier launched in 2018 (also $17,500), reskinned with cosmetics to match the amp. It features fully balanced operation via a discrete DC-coupled Class A circuit with zero global negative feedback, and can accommodate either of two optional internal modules, the Zena DAC ($6,000) or an MM/MC phono stage ($2,250). Being strictly digital I opted to evaluate the DAC, which I’ll talk about in a later installment. I’ll also save more details about the design and operation of this beautifully-crafted gear, including Gryphon’s unique Green Bias system, for a more in-depth review. For now, let’s get down to the business of how it sounds...

The Essence Preamp

When the Essence components arrived I clearly needed my wife’s assistance to safely unpack and set up the 45kg/99lb Essence amp. But she was busy making reeds for her oboe that evening, so I initially made do setting up the preamp (it weighs in at “only” 13.4kg/29.5lbs) and comparing it to my Pass Labs XP10 with the Pass Labs XA30.5 amplifier.

Firing up the Essence preamp from a cold start was one of those “damn, I don’t understand how a preamp can make this much of a difference” moments. Even though the Pass XP10 is a very solid performer - I find the sound of my PS Audio DirectStream significantly improved by it vs. feeding an amplifier directly - the 3x-as-expensive Gryphon outclassed it from the first note, taking musical resolution from the micro to nano level.

The first thing I noticed was how the entire back of the stage opened up. I never realized how triangular it sounded before, becoming narrower as you went deeper. With the Essence it suddenly feels rectangular and whole, with winds, brass and percussion able to naturally spread out and breath on the stage. It didn’t even take a big orchestral recording to experience this - my very first track was an intimate vocal with piano accompaniment, soprano Elsa Dreisig singing Strauss songs with pianist Jonathan Ware (Qobuz). The sense of the space - a church, as you can see from this video - and where the performers occupied it became strikingly tangible. Piano has starting clarity, with all its complex overtones unfolded and laid out for your ear to sample at its leisure. Dynamic resolution is also unlocked - subtle gradations in vocal intensity flow so organically. Going back to the Pass pre, macro dynamics weren’t Iacking, but the transitions somehow came across more synthetically, as if the volume dial was being turned rather than the performers modulating their instruments in the original performance. 

One thing that didn't change too much was overall tonal balance. I find the Pass pretty neutral and extended, if anything having a subtly warmish character to it, at least by solid state standards. The Gryphon doesn't deviate notably from that, leaning slightly in that direction though with more sophisticated and varied tonal richness and density. The quality of the frequency extremes, however, is a different matter. Most striking is how triangles sparkle and ring with startling presence on the Gryphon. With a claimed frequency response out to 1MHz, the Essence pre delivers the highest highs with a sense of ease and finesse. And the bass is everything people have come to expect from the Gryphon house sound - deep, taut and powerful with beautiful tonality. The Pass Labs wasn’t missing any of the music per se, but the deepest bass notes and highest overtones sounded constrained vs. the effortless and wide-open delivery of the Essence.

So, yeah - a preamplifier that costs 3x as much as the Pass XP10 sounds clearly superior. Not much of a news flash, and a much fairer comparison in the Pass lineup would be the XP32 ($17,500) or at least an XP22 ($9,500). But what took me aback was how a preamplifier like the Essence could bring out so much life and nuance that was being curtailed by an otherwise fine piece like the Pass. The net effect was to make the musical performance feel significantly more tangible, visceral and unclouded - something that even the change of a DAC or amplifier doesn’t consistently achieve. The Gryphon Essence pre is simply an incredible conveyor of the musical signal.

And we haven’t even tried the amplifier yet...

The Essence Amplifier

Once I got my wife to assist in positioning the hefty Essence amp in the cabinet (safety first!), I hooked up the Audiovectors via my usual Audience Au24 SX cables and powered up the Gryphon using the stock power cord (the amp requires a 20A IEC connector, so standard cords won’t work). I played a bit with the Green Bias settings but obviously settled with it in red-hot Class A operation for serious listening. And while the amp has since benefited from multiple months of break-in, it was apparent from its first notes that the Essence had resolution, clarity, dynamics and tonal completeness on an altogether different level from any amp I’ve experienced in my system. But there was something else remarkable about its presentation that’s taken me many months to put my finger on, and I think I might be finally getting it.

The Essence amp has a very special ability to deliver the leading edge of a sound with incredible speed, precision and clarity. I’ve heard amps with fast leading edges (some attribute this to high slew rate), I’ve heard amps with very clean ones (lack of distortion and ringing). The Essence delivers a combination of fast and clean that is truly exceptional, and perhaps close to the state of the art. Every impulse and note attack hits you with perfect timing and delineation, then decay with similarly impeccable control. By comparison, amps like the Pass Labs that struck me as very pure have a bit of fuzz to them. Ever listen to an AM radio station when the signal gets weak, and all the starts and stops of sounds get staticky and fuzzy? There was a bit of that feeling going back to other amps in my system... no, they weren’t literally fuzzy and distorted. It’s just that the Essence amp sounds exceptionally lithe and clean, removing an extremely subtle layer of distortion that became difficult to un-hear in other amplifiers. 

Coming from the Pass XA30.5, the Essence’s midrange was less overtly warm but even more substantive in tone. The Pass is certainly on the warm and lush side for a solid state amp, but past Gryphons I’ve heard had their own dose of chocolatey richness, so I was initially surprised by the balance of the Essence. It has the midrange density and lush tonal colors I was expecting from a Class A Gryphon amp, and yet it also sounds close to dead neutral in character. There’s a crystalline transparency that makes everything else sound a bit cloudy by comparison. Class A amps usually get the tonal part right, but can sound a bit sluggish or rounded dynamically; Class AB amps often have great transient speed but with some roughness around the edges and a bit of tonal hollowness. The Essence backs its exceedingly snappy and clean transients with real tonal substance and an infinite palette of realistic tonal colors. It can simultaneously preserve the gravitas of a string bass ostinato, the glowing warmth of a French horn, the delicate nasality of an oboe and the ethereal lightness of a flute all in balance. Orchestral recordings have never sounded this vivid and realistic in my home.

An interesting display of the amp’s prowess was in violinist Hilary Hahn’s recording of the Vieuxtemps Violin Concerto (Qobuz). The album also contains Mozart’s popular “Turkish” concerto which probably gets most of the plays; the Vieuxtemps is infrequently performed and mostly known by violinists as a sort of advanced student concerto (yes, my teacher made me study it). Vieuxtemps was a Belgian virtuoso of the romantic era and while the concerto has its charms, its orchestration is rather clunky. This actually made for a fascinating sonic experience in the concerto’s orchestral exposition, where different instruments pass melodic fragments back and forth in somewhat disjointed fashion rather than the more cohesive harmonization and counterpoint you’d get from a German master. A flute here, a clarinet there, a timpani roll or violin flourish coming and passing - the Essence conveyed each one with striking clarity and trueness of timbre and dynamics, arranging all the instruments across the stage in perfect proportion. So much of the feel of an instrument lies not just in its tonal makeup but the shape and feel of its notes - the reedy breathiness of a clarinet, the ringing “bong” of a timpani, the firm attack of a trumpet, the brush stroke of a violin. This is where the Essence’s leading-edge precision and lack of electronic haze help it truly evoke the feeling of sitting on the stage with the musicians, each and every instrumental entrance having that tactile realism.

Having been a classmate’s of Ms. Hahn’s I also have first-hand experiences of her playing, and the Essence strongly evoked memories of hearing her performing in recitals or practicing in our conservatory. Though we were both teenagers at the time, she had already developed her distinctive tone and focused intensity, and hearing that reproduced so vividly through the Essence and Audiovector speakers is uncanny.

The frequency extremes of the Essence amp, particularly in combination with the Essence preamp, are also something special - the crazy-wide specified bandwidth of Gryphon components is no joke. The speed and tautness and slam of the bass brings realistic clarity to the foundation of the music. It’s bass that I like to call “sneaky” for the way it doesn’t unduly call attention to itself, but then will come out and smack you in the face as in a live event. Instruments like string bass or contrabassoon are naturally portrayed in the orchestration, rather than getting buried in the mix. The top end is extended and articulate, capable of bringing out all the energy and brilliance of string, brass and percussion instruments, and yet certain recordings that tend towards brightness actually sound warmer and smoother than I've heard before. It sounds so pure and free from distortion, so that if there’s any distortion already present on the recording it does nothing to aggravate it. Sibilants and tape hiss and clipping are still there, yet come across less obtrusively, making them easy to tune out in favor of the music. 

Case in point: the DSD remaster of Strauss Don Juan, recorded in 1958 by the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell (Qobuz). My wife and I have listened to this recording dozens if not hundreds of times and while the performance is riveting, the recording quality has always been a bit hissy and strident. My wife asked to listen to it again on the Gryphon setup for study purposes and halfway through I remarked, "does this recording sound a lot less bright to you?" She concurred - we had never heard it sound so clean and natural, and for the first time I didn't notice the tape hiss at all. The Gryphon gear really does excel at extracting the essence of the musical performance locked in the recording, neither artificially filtering nor amplifying the distractions of its mechanical limitations. I’ve heard far too many ultra high-end systems that need absolutely pristine audiophile material to sound their best. With the Gryphons, every recording in my collection has never sounded more distinguished and compelling.

The sense of space that the Essence preamp conveyed with other amplifiers becomes even stronger in combination with the Essence amp. I have never heard the different sections of a symphony orchestra arranged so palpably. Winds and percussion have clearly delineated space behind the string section, and delicate clarinet solos that are typically a bit hazy in recordings are conveyed with both clarity and intimacy. There’s something about the Essence’s blend of clean transients, tonal rightness and harmonic resolution that bring out the distinct ambience and texture of each recording - the aural equivalent of the “mouth feel” of a wine. Going back to otherwise excellent amps makes everything feel a bit more homogenous, a hair less stimulating.

There are a couple of potential shortcomings to call out, and they may be interrelated. The first is that the bass in combination with the Audiovector speakers isn’t quite as hard-hitting as with, say, the 600wpc Class D Legacy iv2, or as what I heard with the Gryphon Diablo 300 integrated; nor is it as plump and room-filling as with the Pass XA30.5. Quality-wise it’s exceptional - fast and deep and pitch-perfect in ways they can’t match - but sometimes I just want it to fill out the space a bit more and punch me in the gut a little harder. I mostly miss this when listening to pop tracks, e.g. anything from Billie Eilish where the raw punch of the Legacy amp factors more strongly than the n-th degree of refinement from the Gryphon.

The other nit is that the soundstage, while vividly painted, feels a bit less “generous” than bigger-sounding amps like the Legacy or Pass Labs, or the Gryphon Diablo for that matter. There’s a bit more emphasis on the precise constituency of an orchestra, as opposed to its sheer scale - a little more of the trees, a little less of the forest. To some, this may make the Essence feel a hair light in presentation, despite its rich and layered midrange.  Ears I trust tell me moving up the Gryphon line to the Antileon EVO or Mephisto can give you the best of both worlds, but those are obviously at increasingly exorbitant price points. 

I’ll need to try tweaking these area of reproduction more (e.g. cables), but as it currently stands, I could see the Essence best matching with speakers that are tonally richer and a bit less critically damped on the bottom end, vs. requiring care with something leaner and more laser-focused. It’s slightly lean with some recordings on the Audiovectors, and I’d definitely want to check before paring it with the likes of a Magico. It goes without saying that when you get to this level of fidelity (and cost), you should expect to spend a fair amount of time and effort on component matching.

As a side note, I was able to further extend the capabilities of the Essence via Furutech’s DPS-4.1 power cord (custom built with 20A connectors) and DSS-4.1 speaker cables. These upped the clarity and transparency yet another notch or three, opened up dynamics further and created a wider sense of space on recording after recording. I’ll have more on these excellent cables and how they synergize with the Gryphons in a future installment.

Capturing the Essence

It’s been challenging pinning down the character of the Essence system, the amp in particular. Even more so than other great Class A amps I’ve heard, including from Gryphon, the Essence amp has a combination of purity, openness, refinement, clarity, speed and dynamic life that defy the usual idiosyncrasies and limitations of Class A vs. AB vs. D. It’s dynamically fleet, rhythmically incisive, tonally sophisticated, dimensionally resolving, and sneakily powerful and punchy. In combination with the superb companion preamp, it uncovers a sense of space in virtually every recording I throw at it with greater detail and palpability than I’ve heard before, without seeming artificially holographic like some tube amps. The tonal purity and resolving power of this pair are simply at a level I have rarely experienced anywhere at any price. Moreover, the name “Essence” couldn’t be more apt - all these sophisticated qualities are squarely focused on conveying the beauty and quirks of the original recording without need for enhancement or editorializing to make it enjoyable. The closest aural recollection I have of this sort of musical resolution was the MSB Reference + Magico M3 system at RMAF 2018, which had a significantly superior DAC and a total cost approaching $300k. 

As for the price... well, I can say that the monies spent on a piece by The Gryphon clearly go towards obsessive engineering and craftsmanship in the service of state-of-the-art music reproduction, rather than ostentation or frivolous excess. This is musical fidelity of the highest order, and my new reference in amplification.

[apod]

2020 March 27

A Little Drop of Galaxy Image Credit & Copyright: Massimo Tamajo

Explanation: A drop of water seems to hold an entire galaxy in this creative macro-astrophotograph. In the imaginative work of cosmic nature photography a close-up lens was used to image a previously made picture of a galaxy, viewed through a water drop suspended from a stem. A favorite of many telescope-wielding astroimagers, the galaxy is the Andromeda Galaxy, also known as M31. About 100,000 light-years across that majestic galaxy's spiral arms and dust lanes are curved and distorted in the image contained in the centimeter-sized droplet. Andromeda is some 2.5 million light-years distant, but this project was still carried out while spending time indoors.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200327.html