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Highend Headphones - All Our Latest News & Reviews!



Hi Everyone,

A couple of dates for everyones diary’s, the first is Saturday September 27th which is our new shop launch for Highend Headphones, all being well it will all be kitted out and up and running by then as there still seems so much to do but now that the floor is down and the security all finished it is just a matter of getting all the furniture in place and plugging everything in, it seems to have taken ages to get this far so both myself and Wendy can’t wait to open the doors to everyone.

Many of the manufacturer’s will be on hand to answer and questions and help run the event, also for one day only we will be offering 10% off any headphones, amps, dacs or cables that are bought at the launch event so a great time to save a few pounds.

Also in our smaller demo room Final Audio Design will be running workshops where you can build your own Heaven II earphones, this has never been done before outside of Japan where it always proves to be a a massive success. The Heaven II’s get great reviews and by building them yourselves you can tune the bass to a response that suits you, these will be limited in numbers so we may have to to a first come first served basis, more news to follow on this.

Both Wendy and myself are really looking forward to putting Highend Headphones out there as there really is no one doing Headphones like this in the UK where you can come and try all the best headphones and amps all under one roof, in a beautiful setting with no pressure sales, just sit back, relax and choose the right headphones for you.

We will have refreshments throughout the day with croissants and coffee for the early risers and nibbles throughout the rest of the day.

If you are planning to come along please feel free to let me know at [email protected], look forward to seeing you on the 27th!

Headzone @ The National Audio Show September 21st/22nd!



We certainly don’t like to make life easy for ourselves as the week before our new shop launch we are packing up Highend Headphones and taking it all to the National Audio Show at Whittlebury Hall over the weekend of September 21st and 22nd as we take over the whole of the ‘Headzone’ Hall.

This is a brilliant audio show that I have attended for the last few years but this year we have been in discussion with the organisers for some time to taking the Headzone area to the next level, so there are going to be 12 stands that we are going to fill with the help of the manufacturers that have offered their support, we will be taking all the brands we represent but the below will have their own stands -
  • Fostex - Showing the new TH-500’s along with the TH-600’s and TH-900’s
  • Ultrasone - Showing the awesome Edition 5, Only 20 pairs available in the UK + the rest of their range
  • OPPO - With the new PM-2 Headphones along with the PM-1 and HA-1.
  • Chord - Showing the amazing little Hugo, this product really is a game changer
  • Grado - With the full range of their new ‘e’ Series of headphones
  • Audeze - Showing their complete range of LCD-2’s, LCD-3’s, LCD-X’s and LCD-XC’s
  • Astell&Kern - Bringing along the best portable players in the world with the AK100 II, AK120 II and AK240
  • Atlas Cables with Aedle Headphones - running 4 identical rigs showing the difference cables make in a highend rig by swapping over different cable ranges.
Plus Highend Headphones will have a large part of the display area to represent all the other brands like, Stax, HiFiMan, Beyerdynamic, Abyss, Sennheiser, Final Audio Design, McIntosh, Trilogy, Burson and Bryston + others so it is certainly going to be a week getting set up for this one. The Headzone area has now been moved into the Brooklands Suite which is right near the main entrance so very easy to find this year, please see the floor plan below to where to find us -



Also for any purchases at the show we have worked with everyone to be able to offer 10% off for anything purchased at the show, if you would like anymore information regarding this please feel free to get in touch.

Please find a link below to the National Audio Shows website below and we hope to see you there.

National Audio Show 2014 | Home Audio Show | Chester Group

Chester Group | Leaders in High Performance Home Audio & Future Technology Shows

So it looks like September is going to be a very busy month :)

Thanks,

Paul
 
Hi All,

Just a quick update in between being busy putting furniture together for the new headphone shop launch in a couple of weeks to say that we now have the much anticipated new OPPO PM-2 headphones on permanent demo.

I think it is fair to say that the OPPO PM-1’s have been extremely well received and really bought something different to the headphone arena what with being very easy to drive, extremely comfortable and offering a very insightful, detailed and clean sound whilst retaining a little warmth, the beauty of using planar drivers.

So how will the PM-2 compare being that they are £400 cheaper and uses the same drivers as the PM-1, well sonically they are quite similar but there is just a tad more refinement and control with the PM-1 which doesn’t take anything away from the PM-2 as a £400 saving is not to be sniffed at, a lot of the saving has been made by using cheaper materials, a cheaper cable and not providing the luxury wooden box with them.

Please see below for the key differences between the OPPO PM-1 and PM-2 Headphones -



If you’d like to come in to try the new OPPO PM-2’s please feel free to get in touch to book an appointment.

Below is more info on our website and a few pictures taken earlier -

http://www.highendheadphones.co.uk/oppo/oppo-pm-2-planar-magnetic-headphones







OPPO PM-1 (right) v PM-2





Cheers,
Paul.
 
Hi Everyone,

This is just a quick post to say that I have just got notification from the HiFiMan UK Distributor that the much anticipated HiFiMan HE-400i’s are now in the country and are available to buy from today, ready for immediate despatch, now I haven’t heard them but Mark, the distributor, was quite blown away when I spoke to him this morning so it certainly sounds like they are quite a special headphone, especially at that price point.

Now I can honestly say that I have never had so many enquiries about a single headphone before as I have with the HE-400i’s so with the limited numbers available from this shipment I don’t expect them to be around for long, the good news is that Highend Headphones have managed to secure exclusive rights for this week up till the National Audio Show this weekend, where we will have the first UK showing of the HE-400i’s.

So if you would like to guarantee a pair which can be shipped direct to you from the distributor on a next day service then please feel free to ring 01767 448121 to place your order, without trying to sound too much like a salesman, I really can’t see this initial shipment lasting past the weekend.

They are priced at £360 + £10 shipping if required, please find more details in the link below -

http://www.highendheadphones.co.uk/hifiman/hifiman-he-400i-headphones

Below are a few quick pictures that were mailed over to me from the Distributor as he was amazed at the level of packaging and overall quality for a headphone at this price point.







Cheers,
Paul.
 
Hi All,

Now I have to admit that until last Friday I had never heard of the Obravo HAMT-1 headphones but when Ricardo from Absolute Sounds came in last Friday saying that he had found a new headphone that he thought was amazing, well I just had to have a listen.

Where the HAMT-1 stands on its own is that it uses Air Motion Transformer technology, or AMT for short, for the tweeter, this is considered by many speaker manufacturer’s to be the best tweeter technology available but as I understand it this technology can only be used for tweeters so the HAMT-1 uses a more standard dynamic driver for bass duties, so now along with Electrostatic, Planar Magnetic and Dynamic headphones we have a 4th technology enter the headphone arena, needless to say I couldn’t wait to strap them on my head for a listen.

First off as seems the case with higher end headphones nowadays, they come presented in a nice cloth bag which is wrapped round a very solid flight case type carry case, once you open the case you can’t help but be impressed with the overall style of these headphones, they are certainly unique with a hint of Abyss about them, once on they sit quite snug and are very comfortable, the only 2 negative comments I would make so far is that I would like the cable to be longer than the 1m supplied and also I really feel that a headphone at this price point, around £1500, should come with a meatier cable and with a 6.3mm jack as opposed to the 3.5mm minijack, although an adaptor is supplied.

So how do they sound? very different is the word, the HAMT-1 definitely brings a different presentation to the table, I have to admit that initially I was a little underwhelmed but I have a feeling that these examples are brand new out of the box as after about an hour of listening I found them getting better and better so I am leaving them running today so I can have another listen tonight. From my initial listen the vocal seemed very clean and neutral but where these headphones really win is on bass weight and drive, they have a real solid punch which is tight and controlled, I compared them directly against the Audeze LCD-X’s and the HAMT-1 offered a far fuller bass presentation with real power at the bottom end, I am expecting when I re-visit them tonight after running them all day that the mid will have filled out a little.

These are not a Sennheiser HD800 as they offer a slightly more laid back presentation overall with more clout at the bottom but I do have to say that after spending a couple of hours listening last night that I can’t wait to re-visit them tonight to see how they perform after getting 24 hours on them as they definitely offer a different alternative to what is already out there in the headphone market and that can only be a good thing.

We have exclusive rights on the HAMT-1 for the first month on sale in the UK and will have the only pair available at the moment on show at the National Audio Show’s Headzone this weekend plus we will have them on demo at our Highend Headphone shop launch on 27th September, so please pop by and say hello and give the HAMT-1 a listen as I will be interested to get other peoples thoughts.

Please see some pictures below and a link to Obravo’s website -

http://www.obravo-global.com/Product/overview.aspx?id=24

























Cheers,
Paul.
 
Hi All,

It has been a bit of a frantic week trying to get everything organised ready for the National Audio Show this weekend but we are nearly there.
After taking a big HiFi rig to last years National Audio show the idea this year was to to just take a few headphones and amps, the trouble is over the last few months that idea has grown to the point that we are now pretty much running the whole headphone area at the show, below is a picture I have just taken of all the amps we are taking and this is without all the headphones, really do think we are going to need a bigger van -





We have also now got the 4 of the below banners just arrived that we will be using to help decorate the Headzone at NAS14-



Regarding the Highend Headphone shop launch next Saturday 27th we have now been running the below ads in HiFi News and HiFi Choice to hopefully get the word out there + we will be giving these out at the show -



And finally, Wendy is heading over to a local artist’s house this morning, who also happens to be a customer, to choose 2 of his paintings to hang on the wall of the new main showroom and Steven who has done all our art in HiFi lounge next week will be painting the below in the entrance to Highend Headphones. So as you can see the last few weeks have been consumed with headphones but I can’t wait for this weekend for the show and next weekend to finally open the doors to the Highend Headphones showroom and share with everyone what we seem to have been planning for months now -



Hope to see you at one or both of the following 2 events.

Cheers,
Paul.
 
Hi Everyone,

It has taken a little while to post this, it has been a busy few days, but both Wendy and myself wanted to say a huge thanks to everyone who came along to the launch of our new shop ‘Highend Headphones’ and helped make it such a special and fun day, as ever it was great to see so many familiar and new faces.

We’d also like to thanks Shaun who came along from KS Distribution and ran the Final Audio Design workshop where customers could build their own Final Audio Design in ears which proved to be very successful, it involved a little patience and a tube of glue so I decided to stay away but everyone else were really happy with the results.

It took a few late nights last week to get it ready and my main concern was that we hadn’t tested the network to get music to all the amps but luckily it held out until the end of the day when it got a little flaky and is still playing up today but at least we got through the launch event :) Some more investigating needed later.

We’ve just got the smaller room to kit out now which we will use as a portable systems room for Astell&Kern, Hugo etc with in-ears and cheaper headphones. Once that is done we will start to think of some open day ideas, we have been talking to Chord Electronics about perhaps doing a Hugo event later this year or maybe early next year so look out for that one, and also I like the idea of a headphone listening party where we hook up 20+ amps and run over 20 pairs of headphones with everyone listening to the same classic albums, just an idea, but could be fun.

So a big thanks again and now we are open if anyone would like to explore how fantastic listening to music on great cans can sound please get in touch to arrange a demo and please keep an eye on the Highend Headphones website as we are constantly looking at new and exciting developments in the headphone arena.

www.highendheadphones.co.uk

Please find a few pictures from the event below -

This is the favourite part of the new shop :)





Final Audio Design Workshop Proved Very Popular.









And in the main room it was starting to get busy.





















Champagne anyone?





And that was that.

Thanks again,

Cheers,

Paul.
 
Hi All,

Just a quickie to let everyone know that the awesome Chord Hugo is now available in Satin Black plus there is a really nice leather case that is also available in black or tan leather which protects Hugo but also allows you to strap your source device directly to it securely.

The Hugo really is one of those products that doesn’t come along too often that catches everyones imagination and almost over night becomes a huge success, I know that it even Chord were caught out by the demand.

Anyway we have it on permanent demo and personally I couldn’t live without a Hugo in my life and for anyone who loves their music and travels a lot it is the perfect companion plus where it wins also is that it is a brilliant DAC that can sit at the heart of any HiFi system, regardless of value.

We will be holding a Hugo open day in collaboration with Chord in the not too distant future so please keep an eye out for that.

Please find a few pictures and info below, any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch, we do try to carry Hugo’s and cases in stock at all times.

Black Hugo

http://www.highendheadphones.co.uk/chord/chord-hugo-mobile-dac-headphone-amplifier-in-satin-black









Leather Case

http://www.highendheadphones.co.uk/chord-hugo-leather-case













Cheers,
Paul.
 
Hi Everyone,

One of our favourite headphone amps is the Trilogy 933, with its pure single ended Class A design it really does take some beating when it comes to out and out sound quality, the only drawback we can see is that at £1995 it isn’t going to be for everyone, well the good news is that Nic Poulson of Trilogy realises this so he has been working on the 931, which is basically a cut down version of the 933 without the external power supply and is designed without compromise to get as close to the sound quality of the 933 but at a more affordable price.

Nic was in at Highend Headphones a couple of weeks ago and bought the prototype 931 in for us to listen to and the good news is that it really does get remarkably close to the 933 but with a price tag of £895 it is in reach of many more headphone enthusiasts, this really should be a popular amp, especially considering its small form factor being ideal for desktop solutions.

It will be due any time now and there will also be colour options for a small premium which use Maserati paint, I’m quite tempted by a really nice dark blue one for the shop :)

Anyway if you’d like to experience the 931 don’t hesitate to get in touch so that we can let you know as soon as it is on demo.

Here are a few pictures of it in the standard finish -

http://www.highendheadphones.co.uk/...adphones/trilogy-931-amplifier-for-headphones













Cheers,
Paul.
 
Hi Everyone,

I have just been notified that Ultrasone have announced that they will be very shortly be launching the Edition 5 Unlimited headphones, this is particularly exciting news as for those who read my comments regarding the Edition 5 then you’ll know that I was extremely impressed, for me they presented the ultimate closed back headphone and one of the best headphones currently available.

Where the Edition 5 was limited to 555 pairs worldwide the Unlimited, as its name suggests, is well unlimited, the great news is though that they use the same driver technology but instead of costing £3000 they will come in at £1599, they don’t come with the stand or presentation box and the gorgeous wooden cups have been replaced by ruthenium coated cups which look equally as stunning, but if they can sound the same these are going to be a real winner and give some real competition to Audeze’s LCD-XC as the reference closed back headphone at ‘Sensible’ money.

I have ordered my demo pair and they should be with us sometime next week so if you’d like to give them a try please do get in touch to book a demo.

Below are a few pics and a link to the website for more info -

http://www.highendheadphones.co.uk/ultrasone/ultrasone-edition-5-unlimited-headphones











Cheers,
Paul.
 


Hi All,

This is just a quick headsup to let anyone know who may be considering buying the Sennheiser HD 800 headphones or either the HDVD 800 or HDVA 600 Sennheiser headphone amps that these hand assembled products will be going up in price due to the increasing cost in raw materials.

These new prices take effect from January 1st 2015 so if you’d like to save a few pounds it may be worth placing the order before the end of the year.

To be honest the HD 800’s are one of my favourite headphones and even at the new price they still offer excellent value for money and are truly a reference headphone.

Please find the new prices below, if you’d like to come in for a demo please get in touch to arrange a time.

  • HD 800 from £999.99 to £1,099.99 (up £100)
  • HDVA 600 from £1,199.99 to £1,299.99 (up £100)
  • HDVD 800 from £1,499.99 to £1,599.99 (up £100)

http://www.highendheadphones.co.uk/sennheiser

Thanks,

Paul.
 
Hi All,

We are big fans of Bursons range of headphone amplifiers at Highend Headphones so when they release a new headphone amp we sit up and take notice, basically the Conductor Virtuoso replaces the Conductor headphone amp which also acted as a DAC and Preamplifier with the Virtuoso offering the same functions.

Burson has significantly upgraded and refined previous generations of the Conductor. There are now a 100-steps of volume control with a new, easy-to-read display. When the Conductor Virtuoso is on the volume indicators appear on the front panel and also this new amp includes a beautifully styled remote control.

There will also be a choice between 2 DAC boards for the Conductor Virtuoso, the Sabre Reference ESS9018, considered by many to be the best DAC chipset currently available and the more analogue sounding Burr Brown PCM 1973, just choose which one you prefer.

We are really looking forward to getting our hands on the new Virtuoso as Burson really do make some of the best headphone amplifiers out there today so this should be pretty special indeed, if you’d like anymore information please don’t hesitate to get in touch, please find a link to it on our website + a few pictures -

http://www.highendheadphones.co.uk/...uctor-virtuoso-headphone-amplifier-preamp-dac





















Cheers,
Paul.
 
Hi Everyone,

I guess its fair to say that we have a few headphone amps on demo, all are great but we really do have a special like for the Trilogy 933 headphone amp, so once we heard there was going to be a cheaper version we couldn’t wait to get it on demo, well yesterday the Trilogy 931 was delivered, the first in the country, needless to say that it doesn’t disappoint.

Priced at £895 it really is great value for money, unbeatable I would say under the £1500 price point, making it a bit of a bargain, especially when you consider that it is all hand built in London and that you get a 3 year warranty.

I couldn’t wait to have a listen so as soon as it had warmed up a little I dove in using the Audeze LCD-3’s and Ultrasone Edition 5 Unlimited’s, instantly you notice the similarities with the 933, it offers a very open and airy sound that lets the music flow really nicely but with great control and drive at the bottom end, I would imagine once we have got some hours on it will only get better so I am going to leave it running for a few days and re-visit it next week.

The standard finish is priced at £895, but we went for the beautiful blue finish which cost an extra £175 but looks absolutely stunning and is worth every penny, there will also be yellow and red versions but any colour, as long as a car paint, can be used.

As far as I can see, if you are looking for an analogue headphone amp under £1000, well to be fair probably under £1500 then the 931 is going to be the one to beat, if you’d like to give it a try please feel free to get in touch to arrange a demo.

Please find a few pictures below -















Cheers,
Paul.
 
Hi All,

Another new announcement from CES, HiFiMan have announced their new reference headphones and amplifier, the HE-1000 and EF-1000, details are very sparse at the moment other than both are totally new designs with the headphones being Planar Magnetic design again, I’m guessing they will be tough to drive like the current HE-6’s but speaking from experience, once you get them working they really are a fantastic headphone., I think these are quite a while off yet from general release but I am certainly already looking forward to getting my hands on them.

Below are a couple of links to both products on the website, once I get anymore info I will update these and below are a couple of pictures -

http://www.highendheadphones.co.uk/hifiman/hifiman-he-1000-headphones

http://www.highendheadphones.co.uk/hifiman-ef-1000-headphone-amplifier















Cheers,
Paul.
 
Hi All,

One more bit of major news from this years CES announced this week, along with their range of excellent headphones Audeze are now entering the Headphone Amplifier arena with their new Deckard Headphone amp, it certainly seems well equipped for the price, $699 announced for the US, it is a Class A design with a USB DAC onboard capable of 16 to 32-bits and sampling rates from 44.1kHz to 384kHz + it has one RCA input, it also has 3 gain settings and can be used as a line level pre-amp, so it certainly offer plenty of features for the money.

We have no price or release information yet but I would expect it to come in between £500-£600, all being well we should be getting the new Audeze EL-8 headphones around mid March so hopefully it will be around the same time.

I have added it to our website with more information, I will update this with pricing as soon as I get it + I have updated the EL-8 open and closed back pages with all the latest info -

http://www.highendheadphones.co.uk/audeze/audeze-deckard-headphone-amplifier-dac

http://www.highendheadphones.co.uk/audeze-el-8-headphones-closed-back

http://www.highendheadphones.co.uk/audeze-el-8-headphones







Cheers,
Paul.
 


Hi All,

Just a quick one to say that after much request we now have added the SPL range of headphone amps to our line up with the Phonitor 2 on permanent demo with the Mini to follow shortly, not only do they look cool but they use Crossed technology, please see below for more info -

Sound Performance Lab, or SPL for short, are a German Pro Audio company that just happen to make very interesting headphone amps and after many requests from our customers we are now happy to offer them for demo and sale. What makes SPL’s Phonitor Headphone Amps so popular are that they use Crossfeed Technology to replicate speaker performance from a highend headphone amp. SPL developed this mainly for the Pro Audio sector for studio mastering but once headphones enthusiasts tried the Phonitor amps they soon realised that this was also great technology to use in a home headphone system. The logic behind Crossfeed is that fundamentally music listened to on a speaker and headphone rig are presented in different ways as with headphones each ear only hears one channel, whereas with speakers the right ear can hear the left channel and vice versa so with the Phonitor amps you set the amount of Crossfeed + other settings to replicate the speaker experience.

So please feel free to pop into Highend Headphones to try a very different headphone listening experience with a SPL Phonitor Headphone Amplifier partnered with our selection of all the best headphones available today.

Please find a link below for SPL on our website + a few Pictures -

http://www.highendheadphones.co.uk/sound-performance-lab

Phonitor 2













Phonitor Mini





Cheers,
Paul.
 
Hi All,

Well this is most definitely one headphone I just couldn’t resist, especially after listening to them at the Munich Highend Show last year. They are co-developed with Beyerdynamic to recreate that classic McIntosh sound, so expect all the detail to be there but presented in a full, rich and easy to listen to way, also being that these are closed back you haven’t got to worry about any outside noise leaking in and also you won’t upset anyone else in the room.

I have to say that they are beautifully made with one of the best presentation boxes I have yet seen and as a bonus they come with their own McIntosh stand, can’t be bad.

Priced at £1995 they certainly aren’t cheap but I would say these could offer a great alternative to what are currently considered the best closed back out there, the Audeze LCD-XC’s, to be fair though they both offer very different presentations. If you are anything like me and have always wanted to own McIntosh equipment this could be a great was to get into the brand.

We are running them in as we speak then I will give them a good listen, please find a link to the MHP1000 headphones on our website-

http://www.highendheadphones.co.uk/headphones/mcintosh-mhp1000-headphones

For me it is always a big occasion when a new piece of McIntosh enters the building and is always worthy of some unboxing pictures, please see below and feel free to come in to listen to quite possibly the best closed back headphone now available.



































Cheers,
Paul.
 
Hi All,

We had the Journalist Ed Selley come into Highend Headphones the other day to do a dealer visit article for HiFi Choice which hopefully will be in the next issue, he took this rather cool picture of one of the systems he is writing about, our McIntosh setup being fed by a Naim Audio ND5 XS.



Cheers,
Paul.
 
Hi All,

Just a quick update regarding the much anticipated OPPO HA-2 portable headphone amplifier and PM-3 headphones, I am please to say that yesterday we received our HA-2’s, I can see this being extremely popular as it seems such great value for only £259, it has that quality feel to it that OPPO understand so well, when you are holding it you would think it was a £500+ product and comes beautifully packed as all OPPO product do.

The perfect partners for the HA-2 are bound to be the new closed back OPPO PM-3 headphones, unfortunately these have been delayed by a couple of weeks so should be with us and on demo around mid March, this should prove a pretty potent portable system for very reasonable money.

I won’t go in to too much detail regarding specs but I have updated the website with all the information if you’d like to find out more, thanks.

http://www.highendheadphones.co.uk/oppo/oppo-ha-2-portable-headphone-amplifier

http://www.highendheadphones.co.uk/oppo-pm-3-planar-magnetic-headphones

OPPO HA-2 Unboxing















OPPO PM-3 Headphones



Cheers,
Paul.
 
Hi All,

I promised to all the enquiries that we have had regarding the PM-3’s that I would blog the minute that the they came through the door, well I will keep this quick but they have just arrived, so I dropped everything and took a few quick pictures.

Wendy has taken them straight round to our headphone shop to get them running in ready for all the demo’s that are booked, along with the Audeze EL-8’s that are due any day now I have never known any other headphones to get this much interest.

Being OPPO it goes without saying that the PM-3’s come beautifully packed and look to be very well made and comfortable, you also get 4 different cables in the box which should cover all kinds of different devices that the PM-3’s could be connected to, Priced at £349 they look to be incredible value, anyway I’ll shut up and upload some pictures, please feel free to book to come in for a demo, thanks.

http://www.highendheadphones.co.uk/oppo/oppo-pm-3-planar-magnetic-headphones



















Cheers,
Paul.
 
Hi All,

Just a quick blog to say that our Highend Headphones shop is featured in this months (April Cover Date) HiFi Choice with a really great 4 page article written by Ed Selley starting on page 90.

Basically we put 3 Highend Systems together to show what we consider to be 3 of the best currently available today, covering open and closed back headphones with planar, dynamic and electrostatic drivers from brands such as Abyss, Stax and McIntosh with a variety of amps and dacs.

So I would say that it is definitely worth picking up a copy this month if you don’t normally, the only questionable piece in the article is that Wendy and myself are titled as ‘Experts’ not too sure about that :) It’s definitely a great read though.



Cheers,
Paul.
 
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