I think these numbers refer to the maximum output under turbo mode.
iFi audio iDSD Diablo - A portable reference done our way!
- Thread starter iFi audio
- Start date
Helpdesk's not too helpful... basically saying that it's caused by my poor connection / I do not know how to see if Tidal is playing Masters or Hifi... >..<
I'm in Singapore, with gigabit fibre broadband, wired to my desktop (and even if I choose to go wireless, I'm on Wifi 6, hitting 400-600mbps in the room where my desktop is).
https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/b2c94789-14d4-4a55-b6ee-33a96b952900 - New Arrivals - Tidal Masters. Makes sense all of them are masters no?
The very first song plays with yellow light... I'm seeing around 50% hitting yellow instead of magenta. I'm not too concerned about the light, more concerned if the Diablo is doing the proper render even if the light is wrong.
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CH23
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2012
- Posts
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- 736
Just got this dac/amp a few days ago. it's an amazing little thing!
I do have one question though:
I have tested several audio formats, compared to LED colour:
* blue for MQA 'studio'. god knows what that means in regards to an audio file.
The observed colours don't at all match those as described in the manual.
i'm running firmware v7.0 'cookies & cream'
I do have one question though:
I have tested several audio formats, compared to LED colour:
| filename | type | sample rate | bit depth | LED colour (observed) | LED colour (iFi manual) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2L-45_stereo_01_DSF_2822k_1b.dsf | DSD 64 | 2.8 MHz | 1 | cyan | cyan |
| 2L-45_stereo_01_DSF_5644k_1b.dsf | DSD 128 | 5.6 MHz | 1 | cyan | cyan |
| 2L-45_stereo_01_DSF_11289k_1b.dsf | DSD 256 | 11.2 MHz | 1 | blue | red |
| 3_Street-of-Dreams_512fs-2ch.dsf | DSD 512 | 22.5 MHz | 1 | red | red |
| 2L-145_01_stereo_01.cd.flac | FLAC | 44.1 kHz | 16 | green | yellow |
| 2L-45_stereo_01_FLAC_88k_24b.flac | FLAC | 88.2 kHz | 24 | green | white |
| 2L-45_stereo_01_FLAC_176k_24b.flac | FLAC | 176.4 kHz | 24 | yellow | white |
| 2L-45_stereo_01_FLAC_352k_24b.flac | FLAC | 352 kHz | 24 | yellow | white |
| 2L-145_01_stereo.mqacd.mqa.flac | FLAC/MQA | 44.1 kHz | 16 | yellow | green/blue* |
| 2L-145_01_stereo.mqa.flac | FLAC/MQA | 44.1 kHz | 24 | magenta | green/blue* |
| JGH_take-111_MQA-from-DSD128-derived-from-raw-DXD.mqa.flac | FLAC/MQA | 44.1 kHz | 24 | yellow | green/blue* |
| JGH_take-111_MQA-from-raw-DSD128.mqa.flac | FLAC/MQA | 44.1 kHz | 24 | yellow | green/blue* |
| JGH_take-111_MQA-from-raw-DXD.mqa.flac | FLAC/MQA | 44.1 kHz | 24 | yellow | green/blue* |
| JGH_take-111_raw-DXD.wav | WAV | 352 kHz | 24 | yellow | white |
* blue for MQA 'studio'. god knows what that means in regards to an audio file.
The observed colours don't at all match those as described in the manual.
i'm running firmware v7.0 'cookies & cream'
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ianjturner
Head-Fier
Hey Head-fiers,
I’ve been definitely unluckier than many so take my ‘blip’ with a pinch of salt, but I do believe in furnishing you with facts.
I got my first Diablo a few weeks ago, was good for a week, and then the Micro iDSD series firmware came out on the support page, wanted to give GTO a whirl and there was firmware 7.0c. This is before the change for entering serial numbers. To be fair, at the time, this didn’t also appear on the Diablo page - so my bad, I would have been fine if I had left it alone! But also the Micro iDSD support page had this gleaming new firmware and a note saying not to worry, you can’t upload the wrong firmware to the wrong device. So I (stupidly) give it a crack. The firmware does upload to the wrong device if the device is the Diablo and the firmware is the ‘new batch’ iDSD Micro 7.0c. And basically that bricked it. I put that down as 50/50 me and iFi at fault. Ok so what next?
Next I immediately contact iFi through the Support page, sweat running from my brow and place the importance at maximum (emergency or something I think?) I guess there are emergencies and emergencies and no one was dying so iFi wasn’t worried about reading my case for a few days. In that time I ended up asking a couple of “hello anyone home?!” type additional posts and still nothing so started contacting the wonderful AddictedToAudio who very quickly organised return.
IFi eventually respond. A snarky message pointing out that every time I add a message to a case I go back to the back of the queue. Wow ok.
So I explain my problem, and suggest that I would be happy to try uploading the correct firmware. I postpone sending the Diablo back and give them a chance to pass it on. Well we get to a week total since the issue is first reported and no firmware. So back it goes. At this point (probably because I’m on this forum) being managed at least by the highly competent Yolanda who is professional and not snarky. Bonus.
AddictedToAudio waste no time and half a week later I have a new device at my door. ATA really are tremendous with their customer service.
I try this new Diablo and it seems fine, starting to smile again (!) and battery runs out. “BOOM” through the headphones followed by click-de-click-de-click. The other one did that when battery was out too. No stress, it’s connected on the iPower that came in the box, switch it off, it will charge. Everyone lives happily ever after? Nope.
I come back a couple of hours later and go to switch it on - no light! Check the charge indicator at the back - nothing! Not good. Sweat returning. Off/on, nothing. Disconnect / reconnect iPower - nothing. Ok maybe it’s the iPower. I’ll charge through the USBA -> C cable that came with the Diablo using the my favourite IKEA USB charger (which is not faulty btw). Charger lights briefly cycle colours, then dies. And then I start to smell the rancid stink of blown capacitors. Not from the iPower, from the Diablo. Not good at all!! I unplug but too late, there’s a strong smell coming from the back of it and it fills the room. (No smoke I could see) So out to the garage with that. It’s fried, no doubt. I go to check the iPower by trying to charge a couple of other things - nope the iPower is also dead! I check in a couple of other wall sockets just in case but no definitely dead.
So AddictedToAudio audio comes to my rescue once more and after two fails and being out of action two weeks with my AU$1400 unit I’m ready to call quits and opt for a refund. It’s no longer making me smile and I’d wonder how long the thing would last anyway.
As I said take that with a pinch of salt as I understand that Diablos generally don’t break this often, I’m just the unlucky one. But once I’m no longer smiling then the spend of money is pointless. And I really wasn’t smiling at all. I will explain why next post.
I’ve been definitely unluckier than many so take my ‘blip’ with a pinch of salt, but I do believe in furnishing you with facts.
I got my first Diablo a few weeks ago, was good for a week, and then the Micro iDSD series firmware came out on the support page, wanted to give GTO a whirl and there was firmware 7.0c. This is before the change for entering serial numbers. To be fair, at the time, this didn’t also appear on the Diablo page - so my bad, I would have been fine if I had left it alone! But also the Micro iDSD support page had this gleaming new firmware and a note saying not to worry, you can’t upload the wrong firmware to the wrong device. So I (stupidly) give it a crack. The firmware does upload to the wrong device if the device is the Diablo and the firmware is the ‘new batch’ iDSD Micro 7.0c. And basically that bricked it. I put that down as 50/50 me and iFi at fault. Ok so what next?
Next I immediately contact iFi through the Support page, sweat running from my brow and place the importance at maximum (emergency or something I think?) I guess there are emergencies and emergencies and no one was dying so iFi wasn’t worried about reading my case for a few days. In that time I ended up asking a couple of “hello anyone home?!” type additional posts and still nothing so started contacting the wonderful AddictedToAudio who very quickly organised return.
IFi eventually respond. A snarky message pointing out that every time I add a message to a case I go back to the back of the queue. Wow ok.
So I explain my problem, and suggest that I would be happy to try uploading the correct firmware. I postpone sending the Diablo back and give them a chance to pass it on. Well we get to a week total since the issue is first reported and no firmware. So back it goes. At this point (probably because I’m on this forum) being managed at least by the highly competent Yolanda who is professional and not snarky. Bonus.
AddictedToAudio waste no time and half a week later I have a new device at my door. ATA really are tremendous with their customer service.
I try this new Diablo and it seems fine, starting to smile again (!) and battery runs out. “BOOM” through the headphones followed by click-de-click-de-click. The other one did that when battery was out too. No stress, it’s connected on the iPower that came in the box, switch it off, it will charge. Everyone lives happily ever after? Nope.
I come back a couple of hours later and go to switch it on - no light! Check the charge indicator at the back - nothing! Not good. Sweat returning. Off/on, nothing. Disconnect / reconnect iPower - nothing. Ok maybe it’s the iPower. I’ll charge through the USBA -> C cable that came with the Diablo using the my favourite IKEA USB charger (which is not faulty btw). Charger lights briefly cycle colours, then dies. And then I start to smell the rancid stink of blown capacitors. Not from the iPower, from the Diablo. Not good at all!! I unplug but too late, there’s a strong smell coming from the back of it and it fills the room. (No smoke I could see) So out to the garage with that. It’s fried, no doubt. I go to check the iPower by trying to charge a couple of other things - nope the iPower is also dead! I check in a couple of other wall sockets just in case but no definitely dead.
So AddictedToAudio audio comes to my rescue once more and after two fails and being out of action two weeks with my AU$1400 unit I’m ready to call quits and opt for a refund. It’s no longer making me smile and I’d wonder how long the thing would last anyway.
As I said take that with a pinch of salt as I understand that Diablos generally don’t break this often, I’m just the unlucky one. But once I’m no longer smiling then the spend of money is pointless. And I really wasn’t smiling at all. I will explain why next post.
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ianjturner
Head-Fier
Thought I’d break my feedback into more than one post because those were the ‘facts’ as far as I am aware and this now is my user experience of being an iFi customer buying a premium product in the Diablo.
Mid last year, I was thinking of getting a Chord Mojo. For me, although it happens to be quite affordable, as would be eg a Hugo or a Dave even if it really mattered enough (it doesn’t!), I usually need some boxes ticked for a luxury item purchase. I want the thing to be pretty much what I need. I want the cost to reflect the quality (not feature set, it either satisfies my needs or it doesn’t). I want to be a ‘raving fan’ of the company that provides the thing. That means what they stand for is important and so is how they perceive their customers. All adds up to ‘brand’ and for luxury stuff I’m buying into a brand.
I dipped my toe in the water “hey Chord I hate when stuff gets updated 2 mins after I’ve bought it, is that going to happen if I get a mojo?”. The response was unsurprisingly secretive, but what stood out was the speed with which they wanted to deal with my ‘case’ and get shot of me. Soulless, uninspiring, boring. Really boring. I didn’t buy a Chord. IFi looked fresh, full of ideas, lots of online following. Clearly customer focussed. Awesome. I bought an iFi Micro iDSD BL. (The Diablo bit is coming!)
Not really a strike - Annoying timing since my OCD brain says my new thing shouldn’t be outdated within 5 months. But products have to be iterated. When the Signature appeared I sucked that up and just sold the BL. Luckily the Sig took forever to get here and by that time I’d almost given up! The Diablo was then announced. A different device apparently. But not totally different to me - I just want a convenient thing I can listen to great quality music with by headphone via USB. Nice if it’s small, whatever. That’s them both. Oh and I want the best latest one, not the one from 2 months ago.
Strike one - if I had bought the Signature, then like many on the forum I would be in ‘what the screw’ zone again. That would have happened twice. That would have been really really annoying.
Strike 2 - huge amounts of misinformation on the Diablo, wayyy back in this thread in fact. Won’t dig it all back up again, just know that even people from iFi were wading in clearly before marketing and support had got their plan straight. I blame the Christmas blip. But still I was almost put off.
Strike 2 - So I buy one, and as per previous post my Diablo #1 gets bricked. Why did it get bricked? I like to fiddle with things for sure. But also I’ve been trained by using the BL that if you want your iFi product to do something different it’s totally firmware upload time. The new 7.0c was tempting, brand new, the devices are real similar, the site says ‘no worries what can possibly go wrong?’ And of course plenty did. So the support sites are not updated efficiently enough to support the user of a new product. Happens. But the software did not stop me either! This is an oversight.
Strike 3 - I reach out to iFi and when there is no response to my top priority request for one of the real premium iFi products I try to rattle cages, and someone in iFi is seeing this as a reason to ignore me - in a customer down situation. And they even think it is good customer management to say as much. Maybe I should have paid AU$2000 for the premium support if it was an option.
Strike 4 - I get to a competent support person in iFi. But even they can’t get firmware because teams are all scattered in different countries and time zones. Ok starting to see that internal comms is a huge issue for iFi for a reason. Problem is…. AU$1400…. And I don’t care if there are internal problems. Fix em.
Strike 5 - In good faith I opt for another Diablo and as posted, it was faulty. But when I report this there’s a distinct ‘are you sure you’re not stupid?’ kind of question coming from support (who strangely this time responded quickly this time) - did I perhaps randomly try to charge the device with the wrong power source? I guess this means a 12v one instead of the 5v iPower. Well no, because I’m not stupid and I’m very aware that iFi do not adequately protect their equipment from such ‘user error’ scenarios! But hang in that’s scary. What would happen if someone picked the wrong power cable? I don’t trust that the Diablo is protected from this and obviously nor do the techos at iFi.
Strike 6 - I’m not going to point fingers but information control is happening on this site. When Diablo 1 went wrong and I reached out via this forum I was told squarely that this is my mistake… Partially yes and partially no I would judge. How about iFi blocks obvious ‘user error’ scenarios from occurring? When Diablo 2 went wrong and I said I’m going to have to share my experience unfortunately, I was told it’s good that I wasn’t going to go public with that. But I never said such a thing. I feel like I was being pushed to stay quiet. How is that good for anyone? Even iFi?
Final post I will mention some things about the Diablo product from a non-raving-fan point of view.
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ianjturner
Head-Fier
I was going to write a review about the Diablo and drop it on the review site but I don’t think I will do that. At least my posts here will get lost in the mists of time in the end.
So a super-mini-review given I’ve only used the thing for a week all up!
The good -
Soundstage positioning is awesome. But I am comparing to a Dragonfly Red.
No hiss.
IFi make cool new stuff when it works and if it is supported properly
The annoying -
The depth of the sound is right up in your face as opposed to presented in front. This can be pretty tiring to process and you end up yearning for a crossover of some kind.
The power, while ‘oh wow yes 5w whatever’ is more an impediment. I’d pay more to have less power honestly. It means you don’t really have much to play with on the volume knob. I had to buy an IEMatch and sometimes I was even using it with my HD660S.
IEMatch ought to be in the box and isn’t. You’ll probably need it.
The volume imbalance. To be fair this isn’t an issue at listenable volumes once the not-included-but-required IEMatch is attached. But the thing that bugged me about the BL and the Diablo is this - every single time you turn the thing on, you get one ear then the other and it’s like ‘hey you paid a bunch of money for this thing and it’s not perfect and it’s never gonna be so suck it up!’ That grates after a while honestly.
Any filter change still requires firmware upload, which is apparently risky and is a pain in ass. Why can’t it be simpler after so many iterations? A software switch would be nice.
When the battery runs out, which it does even while connected to iPower, that’s it -got to leave it to charge.
The bad
The support - slow, doesn’t seem user focussed, more outcome focussed and users are an inconvenience. Fine for some products but not luxury ones. You’re supporting new users of your little red race car here for goodness sake. If we wanted the basics we would have got that from elsewhere for far less $.
Comms in general - some parts of the website seem to be wrong, some, like support, are not updated quickly enough, iFi folk on the forums seem as confused as the rest of us often. There’s an internal communication issue at iFi and it hurts user perception.
Anyway, that’s me. Don’t expect me to bang on about all this, I don’t think that’s helpful for anyone.
Time to go play with my equally priced RME ADI-2 DAC FS now. So many options…. not a firmware upload to do for any of them.
Keep supporting iFi, they will keep making exciting products.
For me, I’m outta here… peace
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The Diablo can only be Class AB, given its maximum output.
That is the short GTO filter for you. If you want actual, real soundstage depth, get a Hugo 2. Which is better is up to personal preference.
One thing I wish that iFi had done was to keep the IEMatch on the SE output. The Diablo is too noisy, and has too high a gain, for IEMs.
Regarding your first unit someone reported that they tried to flash the incompatible 7.0 firmware and it just didn't flash so the device was fine. I've had the Diablo for a few weeks so I had it before they moved the firmware downloads to the download centre and required serial numbers. On the old firmware download page the Diablo was not listed as compatible with any of the available firmware. While the device supposedly wont apply an incompatible firmware did it not occur to you that there might be a risk? There is always a risk of bricking even when flashing compatible firmware on a compatible device, the firmware was not listed as compatible and you flashed the firmware know it was compatible, so the retailer could have just refused the return on the basis that it was damaged due to misuse, so props to AddictedToAudio for replacing the item!
As for your experience with iFi customer service, that's unacceptable. In my experience they do take a couple of days to reply but beyond that I don't know as I've never needed their help with anything. Would like to see if iFi responds to your complaints on here and what they have to say.
Regarding your 2nd unit, that's pretty sketchy. I wonder what could have caused a cap to go so soon. When my units runs out of battery it just goes silent, maybe there is slight click sound and when I plug it into a charger I can basically turn it back of and start using it straight away so I don't need to wait for it to charge at all.
Again, props to AddictedToAudio for the quick support!
I think iFi definitely owes you an apology and maybe some kind of "good will gesture" like a voucher/credit or discount on a new iFi purchase.
CH23
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2012
- Posts
- 2,896
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- 736
Honestly if the website says that the device won't flash an incompatible firmware, then it truly should be like that. I totally get that he'd try it. In fact if you have multiple devices and you mix 2 firmwares up, you could have this same result. plenty of checks that should and could be in the software iFi provides.
I've been in IT for about 6 or 7 years now, and I've flashed many devices from computers to printers to switches and routers. In my spare time too. Never has anything bricked on me, even when i purposefully tried to flash incompatible firmwares (like A&K DAP firmware to a FiiO X5).
This kind of 'user error' should be solved in the flashing program iFi provides, not via a message on the website.
I find IEMatch to be unnecessary but maybe people would prefer they shipped that with the Diablo instead of the iPurifier3. I used replaygain which probably helps a bit with sensitive IEMs but it's not a big deal as all of my current IEMs are planar.I was going to write a review about the Diablo and drop it on the review site but I don’t think I will do that. At least my posts here will get lost in the mists of time in the end.
So a super-mini-review given I’ve only used the thing for a week all up!
The good -
Soundstage positioning is awesome. But I am comparing to a Dragonfly Red.
No hiss.
IFi make cool new stuff when it works and if it is supported properly
The annoying -
The depth of the sound is right up in your face as opposed to presented in front. This can be pretty tiring to process and you end up yearning for a crossover of some kind.
The power, while ‘oh wow yes 5w whatever’ is more an impediment. I’d pay more to have less power honestly. It means you don’t really have much to play with on the volume knob. I had to buy an IEMatch and sometimes I was even using it with my HD660S.
IEMatch ought to be in the box and isn’t. You’ll probably need it.
The volume imbalance. To be fair this isn’t an issue at listenable volumes once the not-included-but-required IEMatch is attached. But the thing that bugged me about the BL and the Diablo is this - every single time you turn the thing on, you get one ear then the other and it’s like ‘hey you paid a bunch of money for this thing and it’s not perfect and it’s never gonna be so suck it up!’ That grates after a while honestly.
Any filter change still requires firmware upload, which is apparently risky and is a pain in ass. Why can’t it be simpler after so many iterations? A software switch would be nice.
When the battery runs out, which it does even while connected to iPower, that’s it -got to leave it to charge.
The bad
The support - slow, doesn’t seem user focussed, more outcome focussed and users are an inconvenience. Fine for some products but not luxury ones. You’re supporting new users of your little red race car here for goodness sake. If we wanted the basics we would have got that from elsewhere for far less $.
Comms in general - some parts of the website seem to be wrong, some, like support, are not updated quickly enough, iFi folk on the forums seem as confused as the rest of us often. There’s an internal communication issue at iFi and it hurts user perception.
Anyway, that’s me. Don’t expect me to bang on about all this, I don’t think that’s helpful for anyone.
Time to go play with my equally priced RME ADI-2 DAC FS now. So many options…. not a firmware upload to do for any of them.
Keep supporting iFi, they will keep making exciting products.
For me, I’m outta here… peace
"I’d pay more to have less power honestly." That basically says you bought the wrong device and that there are better options that suit your needs. The Diablo is the most powerful portable DAC/AMP out there, it's meant to be capable of driving super low efficiency planar headphones, I know they market it as being suitable for sensitive IEMs and I personally think it is (to an extent or in a pinch) although you probably need to use it single ended on eco mode so you actually have so volume headroom, It would be more suitable if they used a better quality volume pot that had less imbalance, I know all volume pots will have some imbalance but the amount of imbalance on the Diablo I personally think is unacceptable for a £900 device, so they should either use better volume pots on the new batches or maybe reduce the power of the eco mode. The imbalance hasn't really been an issue for though as all of my headphones/ IEMs are planar so they need a fair bit of power. I do believe the Diablo is to an extent suitable for IEMs I think iFi should stop advertising it as being suitable for them as that may or has caused people to buy the Diablo with the intent to use it a lot with very sensitive IEMs which may caused them to be frustrated and disappointed, at the least they should remove the work "sensitive" and just says it's suitable for IEMs.
As for firmware being "risky" yeah it is to an extent and definitely is when you flash the wrong firmware. Since the 7.0 and 7.0C firmware was released for the Diablo as have flashed back and forth between the two countless times, I previously had an iDSD signature which I flashed a bunch of times as well without issue.
"When the battery runs out, which it does even while connected to iPower, that’s it -got to leave it to charge."
Why would having it connected the iPower stop the battery from running out? lol
No you dont have to leave it to charge, if it dies you plug it in and power it off and on again and you're back to business. You likely need a decent charger though, the charger I am using is 5V 2.5A.
ianjturner
Head-Fier
Yeah it occurred to me. Thing is that firmware flashing for these Micro style units is a typical use case, as it’s the only way to switch GTO filter on and off.
The page didn’t say it -was- for the Diablo, but it also did not list the Diablo in the no-no list and the page also said no fear of an upload for an incompatible device. I took a screenshot, I can go dig it out…
On the previous firmware 5.0 etc I had myself suggested this might be dangerous. But a NEW firmware released AFTER the Diablo? Plus assurances nothing can go wrong? Experimental perhaps I was. Damage due to misuse? I don’t think so.
I totally agree. When I was browsing the firmwares on the old and new download page I didn't actually see anywhere that said incompatible firmwares wont flash, all I saw was someone (on here I think) report that they tried to flash an incompatible firmware and it didn't apply at all so the device continued to run on the original firmware.
I've flashed a lot of device as well, been doing it for about 9 years now (was about 11-12 when I flashed my first BIOS lol). Only ever had 1 bios and 1 phone hard brick on me (the phone hard brick was somewhat expected lol)
ianjturner
Head-Fier
See Deanbone you are just where I was a few weeks ago. You’re a raving fan and hats off to you sir. I can’t fault that. I was defensive too, no one wants your device slated. And to be fair if I had the thing still I’d be in your camp. I’m just highlighting the view when you fall away from it.
But please note - there isn’t an advertised -lower- limit for the Diablo, just a huge maximum. I’ve never heard of a minimum power limit on a consumer audio device before anyway. So why would anyone expect to have to even think of it especially when it’s so small? Yeah the IEMatch is very much missing from the package.
If it basically said that there is not risk in flashing the wrong firmware then you've done nothing wrong and its all on iFi. From what I've seen iFi's firmware are often far from bug free. people have reported that the Diablo on 7.0 is always detecting MQA or showing magenta and when I had the iDSD Signature some of the firmware for that had some major issues which other reported as well like the device taking over 30 seconds to switch to DSD lol.
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