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Bad Purchase posted:i went back to wired mice and keyboards after a decade of wireless because it just doesn’t matter for things that just stay on your desk forever, plus even the good 2.4ghz dongles glitch out from time to time. I'm on this same journey and ordered a set of Maxwells that should be here in a couple days. I'm solving primarily for 'consistent features, reasonable build quality, moderate range, comfort, and no bullshit'. I outright rejected the Steelseries Arctis Novas for several reasons. The Logitech G PRO Xs are not terrible in any category, but are unimpressive in basically everything that isn't 'range'. Razer Barracudas feel like they are going to fall apart by looking at them. I'm really, really hoping the Maxwells don't suck and I'll probably write some words about them here when I get to use them for a bit.
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Apr 11, 2023 17:47
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| # ? May 28, 2024 21:46 |
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I've got decision paralysis. I am in the market for a decent pair of earbuds after finding I regularly used the cheapo iLuv ones my company sent me in a bullshit corporate swag box. I snooped the past few pages of this thread and found this article on Soundguys with their recommendations for best Android earbuds. Given that the Sony WF-1000XM4's are basically the same price as Pixel Bud Pros, I was comparing the two of them and thought it was odd how the reviews/comparison article between the two sets heavily favor the Sony set, but the Sony review straight up has the line "Google Pixel phone owners should get the Pixel Buds Pro" which is me. Does anyone have a strong opinion either way?
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Apr 11, 2023 19:13
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I use TWS for exercise, and wired for everything else. I also spent good money on my IEMs so I might as well use them.
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Apr 11, 2023 19:13
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Every manufacturer of both phones and TWS buds these days has some system to make using them with their devices convenient, basically they're all copying what Apple did with Airpods to create their own incentivised device ecosystem. So Pixel Buds I believe do the whole automatic pairing with Pixel phones and Pixel watches etc the same way Galaxy Buds do with Samsung stuff. If convenience is king to you, the best buds will always be the ones made by whoever made your phone at this point. Also I use my Airpods at work and everything else is wired through my BTR3k so I still get the separation of phone and bud.
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Apr 11, 2023 19:56
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Hello thread, I'm trying to get some wired IEMs for music and a bit of handheld gaming (Switch, Analogue Pocket, etc.). Music source would likely be Apple dongle and laptop, FLAC/DSD via Foobar. Pricing is strange in my region though which I feel would probably change the standard order of recommendations from YouTubers. Current IEMS are RHA MA750 which I don't love. They sound better through the Apple dongle than they did on my old Android phone. With no EQ they are alright but a bit muddy and lacking detail for me, and the treble can be a bit bright but not enough to be fatiguing. I feel like EQing them makes them a bit boring though. I also use the Sony XM3 TWS buds and hated them out of the box, way too muddy and the bass killed all detail. They are alright with EQ though. I own the overear WH-XM3s as well and same story, hated them before EQ. My main critical listening set up is AKG Q701 into an L30/E30 stack. Those sound nice without EQ but are definitely fatiguing after an album or two. With EQ I really like them. For IEMs I'd love something with good separation, a bit more bass slam than what I have now but not at the expense of detail. Also, I'd obviously like to feel like they are an upgrade over the RHA 750s rather than a side/down grade. Genres I listen to are all over the place, but most recently lots of 70s/80s Japanese music like City Pop and Jazz Fusion. I like Jazz fusion in general. Other genres I love are prog rock, 80;s-90s rock, indie, hip hop, normal jazz. With that said, here are the IEMs I'm looking at and their price, roughly converted by dropping two zeroes from JPY. Truthear Zero - 70$ Aria White - 99$ Aria Black - 110$ Hexa - 120$ 7Hz x Crin Dioko - 130$ Olina SE - 146$ 7Hz Timeless - 247$ (subtract a 5% coupon to 235$) Moondrop Kato - 263$ (there's an open box for 229$, but will probably be gone before I get any replies). Aful Performer 5 - 285$ Any general thoughts/advice?
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Apr 12, 2023 02:19
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Pegnose Pete posted:Any general thoughts/advice? Passburger fucked around with this message at 15:25 on Apr 13, 2023 |
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Apr 12, 2023 15:13
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njsykora posted:Every manufacturer of both phones and TWS buds these days has some system to make using them with their devices convenient, basically they're all copying what Apple did with Airpods to create their own incentivised device ecosystem. So Pixel Buds I believe do the whole automatic pairing with Pixel phones and Pixel watches etc the same way Galaxy Buds do with Samsung stuff. If convenience is king to you, the best buds will always be the ones made by whoever made your phone at this point. Thank you for the gut check. My Pixel Pros arrive this afternoon.
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Apr 12, 2023 18:19
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Big AirPods Pro firmware update this week. Nobody knows what’s in it because there are no patch notes, although the loons on Reddit are still complaining because the industry leading noise cancellation still lets you hear the faint sounds of oncoming traffic when you’re crossing the road
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Apr 13, 2023 11:50
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I’m sure I looked like a huge dork, but I tried wearing AirPod Pros with “adaptive transparency” activated at a concert last night. I think it was good? With the pods in, it felt like nothing was happening and the volume was still fairly loud, but when I popped the pods out, it was *uncomfortably* loud without them. I’m not sure if I would count on it for longterm protection because the pods didn’t seem to have a fast enough attack to completely tame loud transients, but I felt like I was enjoying more of the music than I usually do with Eth-Plugs
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Apr 13, 2023 16:15
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Please do not use ANC headphones as ear protection.
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Apr 13, 2023 16:27
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It wasn’t a situation where hearing protection was strictly required, but they did a drat good job at keeping me comfortable without losing the shimmery highs that musicians plugs usually ruin.
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Apr 13, 2023 16:36
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To piggyback, if you're gonna use ear things to attenuate noise in concert situations, you're better off using something like the Loop Quiet earbuds (25ish bucks) because those are actual hearing protection designed for this purpose
Mr. Mercury fucked around with this message at 16:45 on Apr 13, 2023 |
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Apr 13, 2023 16:41
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Ok mom. I own and use Ety Plugs. I’m just excited at how well Apple Adaptive Transparency does what it’s advertised to do.
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Apr 13, 2023 16:45
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Look if I'm your mom I'm gonna make the thing you hate most for dinner tonight, young goon
Mr. Mercury fucked around with this message at 16:50 on Apr 13, 2023 |
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Apr 13, 2023 16:47
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eddiewalker posted:It wasn’t a situation where hearing protection was strictly required, but they did a drat good job at keeping me comfortable without losing the shimmery highs that musicians plugs usually ruin. if it was uncomfortably loud without the airpods in it was inarguably a situation where hearing protection was required. it's an interesting anecdote but like, don't do that.
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Apr 13, 2023 17:25
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Yeah I'm not trying to be your mom but I've seen a few "can I use ANCs as hearing protection" questions here and the answer there is inarguably "no"
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Apr 13, 2023 17:32
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Does anyone have any impressions on the Soundcore Anker A3i? I like bass, but other than that don't have much in terms of demands. Reviews seem good, but you guys are always best for a sense check: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Soundcore-...111&sr=8-3&th=1
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Apr 15, 2023 13:10
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All the Soundcore stuff I've bought has been solid for the price, though the first thing I always say to do is remove the terrible default EQ preset they use.
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Apr 15, 2023 13:45
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Very happy with my crapple AirPod pro 2s. They do amazing numbers and I can’t hear the haters (unless I turn on transparency mode ofc)
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Apr 16, 2023 01:05
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Feels Villeneuve posted:Please do not use ANC headphones as ear protection. This. I keep a pair of dumb concert grade Hearos IEM style hearing protection handy when I go to certain venues. Tiny amount of space to reserve in one pocket. Sexy? No. High-tech? No. Transparent? Kind of. Do I suffer hearing loss? No yet which is all that matters.
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Apr 16, 2023 08:11
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Can someone explain to me why good ANC earbuds don’t work as noise protection? Is it the possible tiny amounts of latency between the sound happening and the ANC kicking in?
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Apr 16, 2023 12:36
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The Grumbles posted:Can someone explain to me why good ANC earbuds don’t work as noise protection? Is it the possible tiny amounts of latency between the sound happening and the ANC kicking in? Latency, plus how well ANC works depends a lot on the frequencies in question, plus it hasn’t been studied very much. It’s less “this for sure doesn’t work” and more “this for sure works less well than just using earplugs, and nobody really has any way of knowing how much less”, which is super not what you want when you’re talking about permanent sensory damage.
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Apr 16, 2023 12:47
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ANC is useful for blocking out low frequency drone type stuff. It rolls off fairly quick and higher freq stuff can pass through. As long as the IEM (whatever it is) has decent passive isolation, you are golden. I was using a hammer drill with some piss-end TWS with ANC, it wasn't ideal but it cut the percussive noise down to something that didnt hurt the ears and was 'fine'. Sure you can get better with some foam shoved up your butt but in a pinch its okay.
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Apr 16, 2023 15:59
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I don't think anything less intrusive than etymotics will seal your ears well enough to keep extremely loud noises from bleeding through at least a bit
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Apr 16, 2023 16:27
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Clark Nova posted:I don't think anything less intrusive than etymotics will seal your ears well enough to keep extremely loud noises from bleeding through at least a bit Custom IEMs will do it but.. same kind of thing. They fit deep in the ears. If you get lucky with a universal you can get them to fill the ear enough to have similar isolation to ety.
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Apr 16, 2023 17:14
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I think there actually are IEMs which have measured NRR/OSHA ratings which is what you need for like, safety equipment
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Apr 16, 2023 19:50
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Zero VGS posted:Hmm. I wonder if I can buy a damaged pair of Arctic Pro Wireless like with a snapped hinge, then tear out the PCB and battery slot, then solder a 3.5mm headphone/mic jack to the PCB and attach all those guts to the side of my Astro A40. I don't see why that wouldn't work, except from what I can see the A40 speakers might have a slightly different impedance, and the Arctis I assume would be tuned way different since it assumes a seal on your head? Is that anything I could overcome with the equalizer? I'm tempted to try... I did it. Introducing the Arctro Pr04bidden Wirelest:  Took the speakers out of the Arctis Pro Wireless, tore away the headband and soldered a headphone jack to the solder pads where the speakers used to go, and coupled some magnet covers with 3M Command Strips. Now it can magnetize to the side of any pair of headphones and add lossless, lagfree 40+ foot wireless, a very nice microphone with mute button, Bluetooth that can mix PC with phone audio, a base station that charges a spare battery, and all the other Arctis features. I was expecting the volume or bass to be screwed up since this is closed-ear electronics driving an open-ear Astro, but nope. The audio sounds perfect on flat equalizers. It sounds better than when my A40's were wired, because the Arctis electronics are driving them louder than my laptop was. The one thing I had to do was turn off the volume limiter on the base station, as I think the Arctis electronics drive the Astro speakers maybe 10% quieter than it drove the original Arctis speakers. But it can still easily reach hearing-damage levels before maxing out. Best pair of headphones I've ever had. Was $25 for a pair of A40's, and $55 for a pair of Arctis with a broken hinge (which I tore out anyway) It adds only like 2 ounces to the headset because it's nothing but ABS and PCB , but it's enough that I'll just need to counterweight the other side, and close it up with something better looking than that medical tape. I'm beyond stoked though, the A40 had better comfort/sound and now I've got the best of both worlds with none of the weaknesses.
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Apr 16, 2023 20:28
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Seems like a lot of effort—keep an eye out for weight issues with the imbalaced load, and pause using them if your neck/head starts hurting after use
Mr. Mercury fucked around with this message at 20:52 on Apr 16, 2023 |
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Apr 16, 2023 20:37
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Zero VGS posted:I did it. Introducing the Arctro Pr04bidden Wirelest: have you thought about making a matching magnetic container that can attach to the opposite earcup? maybe you could put, like, I dunno, wasabi peas in it or something
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Apr 16, 2023 20:44
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Mr. Mercury posted:Seems like a lot of effort—keep an eye out for weight issues with the imbalaced load, and pause using them if your neck/head starts hurting after use I am a VR gamer, my neck is very powerful! Ok Comboomer posted:have you thought about making a matching magnetic container that can attach to the opposite earcup? That's a deep cut... but yeah maybe I can make a container that holds my beef jerky and maintains it at an ideal temperature...
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Apr 16, 2023 20:57
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Zero VGS posted:I am a VR gamer, my neck is very powerful! Could totally be true, but necks tire especially as we age! Just something to watch out for is all, not fated to happen or whatnot
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Apr 16, 2023 21:08
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I bet that weighs less than the airpod max
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Apr 16, 2023 22:13
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I made some big improvements and balanced it out:  It is very compact now and sounds awesome. I came up with a trick where I ran the right audio through the A40's unused headphone jack, so it would carry across the headset to the left-side output jack and I looped the wires back into the plug as an input. These wireless adapters are just powerful enough to drive the A40's as loud as I can handle, which are apparently 48 Ohm impedance speakers. Am I right to assume that if I tried these adapters on an "audiophile" headset with higher ohms, it would be too quiet, but if I try them on something like say the "beyerdynamic DT 900 PRO X" which is also 48 Ohm, it would be a sidegrade if I'm not an expert?
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Apr 20, 2023 19:37
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Zero VGS posted:These wireless adapters are just powerful enough to drive the A40's as loud as I can handle, which are apparently 48 Ohm impedance speakers. Am I right to assume that if I tried these adapters on an "audiophile" headset with higher ohms, it would be too quiet, but if I try them on something like say the "beyerdynamic DT 900 PRO X" which is also 48 Ohm, it would be a sidegrade if I'm not an expert? what you've done is create the worlds dumbest bluetooth receiver. you could just buy a tiny bluetooth receiver instead of taping broken headphones to not broken headphones.
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Apr 20, 2023 19:51
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Zero VGS posted:I made some big improvements and balanced it out: the only thing stopping this from being the groverhaus of headphones is you're probably not at risk of electrocution
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Apr 20, 2023 19:56
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Zero VGS posted:These wireless adapters are just powerful enough to drive the A40's as loud as I can handle, which are apparently 48 Ohm impedance speakers. Am I right to assume that if I tried these adapters on an "audiophile" headset with higher ohms, it would be too quiet, but if I try them on something like say the "beyerdynamic DT 900 PRO X" which is also 48 Ohm, it would be a sidegrade if I'm not an expert? Just gonna skip over a few things here but RE "da Ohms"; Impedance isn't the only thing that matters here, that figure is just how resistive the headphones are to power. You also need to know what the sensitivity/efficiency is in order to determine if your source is providing enough juice to make something loud enough to listen to. More and more headphones nowadays are being designed to be more efficient so you'll likely get lucky, but using other drivers would require a complete housing redesign to make sure they could be held in place and fit the casing. Better off not tinkering there and just using the product, as that's what the headphones were designed around. You'll not get better results than the OG product!
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Apr 20, 2023 20:36
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Dr. Fishopolis posted:what you've done is create the worlds dumbest bluetooth receiver. you could just buy a tiny bluetooth receiver instead of taping broken headphones to not broken headphones. Except that it uses lossless, lagless 2.4ghz with several times the range of bluetooth. And my windows desktop doesn't have bluetooth, and even if it did bluetooth on Windows is heinous. And the base station charges a spare battery so I can swap to a full one in seconds. And it adds a microphone which is much higher quality than what the A40's had. And there's an equalizer with a nice jog wheel for volume, and I can mix the levels of the game/chat volumes instantly. And there's a microphone mute button and a red LED on the mic so I can be sure when it's muted. And it can play audio from my smartphone's bluetooth for phone calls and my PC's audio over 2.4ghz at the same time. And they're not taped, I upgraded to magnets (how do they work)? I mean, you're talking to one of the cheapest goons on the planet, but bluetooth is just no bueno for gaming, even apt-X low latency has noticeable latency, certainly unplayable in rhythm games. I'm wearing headphones for 12 hours a day, so why not combine the most feature-packed wireless guts with the most comfortable headset? Sorry if no one is impressed, I still think it's mondo cool. Mr. Mercury posted:Better off not tinkering there and just using the product, as that's what the headphones were designed around. You'll not get better results than the OG product! I was just entertaining the thought of going down the "audiophile" rabbit hole. But yeah, these already sound perfect to me now so I should try to take a break and be happy. It seems really hard to find specs for sensitivity/efficiency and harder to interpret them, so I suppose the best bet is to just bring these with me and plug them into demo units at Best Buy or HiFi stores if I ever get around to it.
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Apr 20, 2023 21:21
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Don't let anyone rag on your DIY headphones, my man. They work for you, they make you happy - end of.
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Apr 20, 2023 22:06
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Zero VGS posted:these already sound perfect to me now so I should try to take a break and be happy. It seems really hard to find specs for sensitivity/efficiency and harder to interpret them, so I suppose the best bet is to just bring these with me and plug them into demo units at Best Buy or HiFi stores if I ever get around to it. always hard to know when to stop eh? but if you're feelin' good, that's a good point. If you want the maths when it comes time, the equations are pretty straightforward
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Apr 20, 2023 22:10
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| # ? May 28, 2024 21:46 |
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Yeah, honestly you're probably not going to be well served by upgrading it further. You've already got a rad piece of hacked gear, take the W and enjoy it.
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Apr 21, 2023 00:14
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