Out of the BoxVirtuoso+
Baratza is very high on their new plain box, 100% compost materials used with their new Vario+ and Vario-W+ grinders, but they’re still using the coloured boxes and plastic (LDPE 4) for the Virtuoso+; we hope this changes soon. Still, there’s no styrofoam or other really bad materials used in their packing, so they’re ahead of lot of the industry in this regard.
Inside the box is a cardboard cocoon for the Virtuoso+ and it’s parts, with plastic wrapping around the grinder, lid, and bean hopper. The printed manual for the grinder sits on top. Removing the cocoon with the 3.5kg grinder is easy thanks to two lift tabs with finger holes, allowing you to slide the cardboard home up and out of the outer box.
Once the machine and its parts are out of the cardboard cocoon, you get a very solid grinder body with an equally solid and thick two prong power cable. The hopper and lid are on their own. The grinder’s catch bin is already in the body of the grinder, and inside that you’ll find some additional items: a nylon scrubby brush for cleaning the burrs, and a rubber grommet collar you will need to insert on the grinder’s burr group before attaching the bean hopper.
Assembling the grinder is fairly easy. The burr group is already in place (and has red lines painted on it and the outer burr housing: if you ever need to remove the burr group, these are the indicators for putting it back into the right place). With the top burr group in place, put the rubber grommet onto it (it has notches to line up with the burr holder’s plastic tabs), then insert the bean hopper with its solid grind selection line lining up with the solid black arrow on the grinder’s collar, past the “40” marking.
Virtuoso+ Specifications
The Baratza Virtuoso+ has a 180W DC direct drive motor, a gear reduction system, turning the 40mm Etzinger burrs inside at a constant 550RPM under no load. Within its 40 selectable grind settings, it can output ground coffee between 1.4g a second, and 2.3g a second (tested).
According to Baratza, the Virtuoso+ can produce micron sizes between 200 and 1200+. 200 isn’t quite a Turkish grind, but close (125-150um); 1200um is the starting point for good press pot coffee. We will test this in the full review. Settings under 10 are in the moka pot / espresso range, and above 25 are in the Chemex Kone filter and Press Pot range.
This is not a zero retention grinder but it’s close; in our early testing, the Virtuoso+ retains about 0.8g of coffee between grinding sessions (with a full cleaning of the burr group between measurements)
The grinder is quiet, measuring 78db in our initial testing. Baratza says the DC motor, combined with the mounts, rubber feet, closed lid on the bean hopper, and the amount of metal in the construction contribute to this being one of the quieter grinders on the market.
The Virtuoso+ measures 12cm wide, 35cm tall, and 16cm deep (4.75” x 13.75” x 6.25”). It weighs 3.6kg empty (7.94lbs). The bean hopper capacity is 225g (8oz), and the grounds bin capacity is 140g (5oz). The grinder only comes in one colour design: black with metal accents.
More on the Motor
The Virtuoso+, like the Virtuoso before it, has a DC motor; in fact the Virtuoso was one of the first mainstream consumer grinders to use one. Why is this important? DC power motors are just better for coffee grinding, even though they cost 2x more than a similar power AC motor.
The most important reason is torque: DC motors have 100% torque even at 0 RPM starts. When coffee burrs are already filled with coffee beans (including partially chewed up beans from the previous use), having 100% torque the moment you hit the grind switch delivers better grinding performance and less wear and tear.
DC motors are way more efficient than AC equivalents. In a DC motor, roughly 70% of the wattage draw goes to work grinding coffee; in an AC motor, that’s around 35%. Where does the rest of the wattage draw go? Heat production. AC motors get hotter, which also leads to long term failure and equipment repairs. DC motors last longer – way longer.
The Virtuoso+ direct drive DC motor also has a gear reduction system, so it spins at 550RPM, consistently. It also gets up to that RPM level very fast. This contributes to an even particle distribution in the grind output.
Original DC Motor
Here's the original prototype Virtuoso with its then-new and unique DC motor. This photo is from the 2006 SCAA show.
Body Design and Materials
Not much has changed in the Virtuoso+ body design and materials compared to the discontinued Virtuoso. It still features a lot of metal and “oomph” to make it seem like a serious appliance. The company has once again upgraded the main plastics – the bean hopper and grinds catch bin – to further reduce static issues, something that plagues a lot of grinders.
These plastics are also a bit more clear and transparent compared to the darker brown-tinted hopper and catcher on the old Virtuoso. This is especially helpful since the grinds area is now lit by LED lights. The grinds bin also has a horizontal line on it to show recommended maximum grind volume.
Baratza has added more branding to the grinder, with a cutout “Baratza” name cut right into the side panels.
Everything on the Virtuoso+ feels solid. I read one sort of generic review of the grinder claiming the bean hopper seemed “cheap” but that’s not the case. There’s a lot of science in that plastic and its design that contribute to the grinder’s overall performance and longevity.
Everything fits together very well too. Baratza’s been making this grinder body for nearly 17 years now with some minor aesthetic changes, and it shows that they’ve got it all down to a well fitting machine. I like these products with a bit of weight; at 3.6kg empty, this doesn’t feel like a slide-around toy on the counter. It gives you confidence it’s going to work well, and last a long time.
Controls
The Baratza Virtuoso+ kind of follows the Steve Jobs school of usability: just have one control point that is intuitive and works well for what it does. In fact, the Virtuoso+ has two control points, but one is the rotating burr hopper collar for adjusting the grind fineness; the main controls of this grinder all through a single pressable dial knob up front.
Rotate it to change the grinding time. Press it to grind. Long press to get into pulse mode. Press and hold to grind on demand when in Pulse mode. Exit Pulse mode by turning the dial left or right. Or after 2.5 minutes, it will just exit back to normal mode on its own. For what it does, it works very well.
The LCD 3 digit panel above the control dial shows the grinding time: either the preset countdown timer, or if in Pulse mode, it starts at 0.0 and counts up whenever you hold the grinding button. It is backlit, and easy to read. The timer will max out at 40 seconds in either mode.
There are no preset functions on this grinder. Whatever time you have set for the grinder at a given time will remain, until you turn the dial to change the grind time.
In the Pulse function, the timer will turn into a stopwatch, and count up as long as you’re actively holding the grind button in pulse mode. Let go of the button, and it pauses at the number of seconds displayed. Press again and it will continue to count up.
From the "Steve Jobs School of Minimalism", all the grinder's controls are via this one knob.
Grind Settings
Even though manufacturers do try to give you the best possible advice on grind settings for various brewing methods, I can’t help but test these things myself using a Kruve sifter, and that’s just what I’ve done. Here’s the settings I’ve tested with the Virtuoso+ grinder for various brewing methods:
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Espresso: 5-8 (300-350 microns)
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Moka Pot: 10 (400-500 microns)
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AeroPress: 12-15 (500-700 microns)
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Automatic Drip: 14-16 (650-800 microns)
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Siphon: 15-16 (700-850 microns)
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Pour Over: 15-17 (700-900 microns)
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All Metal Pour Over: 17-19 (900-1050 microns)
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Chemex: 18-20 (900-1100 microns)
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Press Pot: 32+ (1200 microns or bigger)
I note that there is a bit of adjustment play you can do with the Virtuoso+ to go slightly finer, or slightly coarser. The grinder can be recalibrated, but it’s a bit of a step by step process. Fortunately, Baratza has a PDF showing how.
Grind Adjustments
The grind is adjusted finer or coarser via the Virtuoso+'s collar. It has 40 settings.
Other Elements
The Virtuoso+ has two LED lights that light up the grinds bin and grinds area of the grinder. This is especially welcome when you’re grinding directly into a portafilter, or a catch bin (like the increasingly popular 54mm and 58mm catch cups to use with portafilter baskets). I use the Virtuoso+ for cupping coffees, and grind directly into our cupping cups, and can easily see the grind output, quality and quantity with these lights.
As a side note, Baratza has also added these kinds of lights to the Vario+ and Vario-W+, but for whatever reason, the LEDs on those grinders are more cold-white than the natural, warmer light ones on the Virtuoso+.
It’s funny how you notice these things; but because of this, day to day use with the Virtuoso+ is that much more pleasing. It makes the coffee look natural colour, instead of a harsh blue. This is especially noticeable if you’re grinding direct into a portafilter or into a catch cup, instead of the included grinds bin. Even as I type this, all three grinders are sitting over on the test bench, lit up, and the Virtuoso+ looks so much better.
LEDs Compared
The blue-white LEDs in the Vario+ compared to the warmer white LEDs in the Virtuoso+
The grinder sits on rubber feet that, believe it or not, Baratza has put a lot of research into and have modified somewhat over the years. The current iteration are extremely stable, non slip, and contribute to noise dampening on this grinder.
Baratza has put a lot of work into these feet - more non-slip, more grippy, and more sound reduction from the grinder.
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First UseVirtuoso+
The Virtuoso+ with the Espro Bloom - the latest default brewer we use to test grinders.
All equipment that touches food you ingest should be cleaned before you use them. So I always give the plastic parts of a grinder a quick sudsy wash and dry. On the Baratza Virtuoso+, that’s the bean hopper and grinds bin.
I also have something else I always do, but this is definitely optional: I run a cup of rice through a brand new grinder before putting beans in. If there’s any kind of manufacturing oil or residues inside, the rice will take care of that. Then I grind through about 50g of stale, old coffee just to do a light seasoning and get any rice starch out of the machine. Once all that’s done, coffee gets loaded up and the grinder is put to use.
Since the Virtuoso+ is a multi-purpose grinder, I like to start in the middle, with a 15 setting for a Hario V60 pour over brew.
The very first thing you notice with the Virtuoso+ is it’s fairly quiet, compared to some other Baratza grinders. It’s not the quietest grinder I’ve tested in the last five years (the Wilfa Uniform is), and it is a bit louder than a Breville Smart Grinder Pro. Compared to the screeching banshee that the Baratza Sette series is, it’s very pleasing. You can definitely have a normal conversation while it is running.
The grinder is also pretty fast. Again, not a speed demon like the fastest consumer grinder on the market (the aforementioned Baratza Sette grinders), but if you’re old like me and remember the glacially slow speeds of the Rancilio Rocky and Solis 166 grinders, the Virtuoso+ seems a speed merchant in its own right. It’s not fair though for me to test the output speed until at least 40 or 50lbs of coffee have been through this grinder: conical burrs need a good break in speed to get to their true performance numbers. That said, my first grind samples for pour over were coming out at nearly 2g per second. For a 21g brew dose for 300ml output, we’re talking 10 seconds of grinding time.
I have to give kudos to Baratza for the user interface of this grinder. Super simple and very easy to figure out. I really do think Steve Jobs would be proud: everything is accomplished through one control knob (except for the grind fineness changes).
Normally I’m a RTFM kind of guy (read the phoquing manual); I have to admit I didn’t with the Virtuoso+ because I was going on a trade show demo I saw of it in pre-production. It’s so simple to use, I figured it out very quick:
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Press to grind for the count down time shown on the display.
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Rotate the knob left or right to increase or decrease the timer.
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Long press to get into pulse mode. (P will display on screen)
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Press and hold to grind on demand. (timer counts up, even if you pause grinding on demand - nice feature for “dialing in” your grind dose timing!)
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Rotate the dial after grind on demand to get back into timer mode.
I did find myself missing a common feature on other Baratza grinders: multiple timers for different brewing methods / volumes. With those, you can just press one of three presets to jump between brewing for your pour over, or your 10 cup auto drip. On the Virtuoso+, you have to remember what timer settings to set for different brewing methods and volumes. Or you could do what I did – have a small notebook next to the grinder with your grind settings and timer settings written down for reference.
Dialing in the Virtuoso+ timer is really easy with the grinder’s pulse and grind on demand feature, because the grinder can pause the count-up timer and continue it with the next long press. Here’s how it works for dialing in.
Say you want to know the timer setting for 21g of coffee for a 300ml Hario V60 pour over. Have a scale handy, and weigh the grinds bin, zeroing it out. Insert the bin, and press and hold the control knob to start the grind-on-demand mode. Stop pressing when it’s around 7 or 8 seconds. Remove the bin, weigh it. Depending on what you read, (my guess is it will be about 16g for 8 seconds), reinsert the bin and press the button again. The counter will continue to count up – 9, 10 seconds. Stop, weigh, and once you get near your 21g dose, look at the display: that timer number is what you’ll set to get this same dose next time you use the grinder.
There is one kind of annoying choice in the single control knob’s usability: when you turn the dial counter clockwise, it counts down .1 second at a time. But if you rotate it clockwise, it counts up 1 second at a time. So if you’re turning it down to, say 9.2 seconds, and miss it by .1, going to 9.1, rotating up jumps a full second, requiring you to rotate it back down .9 seconds to get to your set time.
From the "Steve Jobs School of Minimalism", all the grinder's controls are via this one knob.
Longer Term UseVirtuoso+
In a few months testing, I’ve used the Virtuoso+ for every brewing method save for turkish coffee. That means espresso, moka pot, aeropress, siphon, pour over with cloth, paper and metal, auto drip, chemex, chemex with a Kone filter, and press pot.
The only brewing method it struggles a bit with (but can still pull off) is espresso. The main problem is the big “macro” jumps in grind size going from, say, 7 to 8 on the adjustment collar. This can result in a shot running an extra 5 seconds longer or shorter.
This grinder really does excel at most other brewing methods. Let me just talk about one: the Espro Bloom brewer. I have a love-hate thing going on with this brewer because the filter papers are so expensive and so hard to manage. But I’ve settled on the Bloom as one of my main test-brew devices for grinders because using it without paper filters can produce an absolutely stellar brew, if the grinder and grind size are really good.
On the Bloom sans paper filters, you need a coarser grind than pour over – as coarse as Chemex, in fact. Finer grinds just clog up the filter’s micro-etched holes. A lot of hand grinders I’ve used with the Bloom just can’t pull it off. The best grinder I’ve ever tested with the Bloom is the Wilfa Uniform, but the Virtuoso+, along with the Vario+ and Vario-W+, are pretty close.
Long story short, using the Virtuoso+ at a 19 or 20 setting, 25g of coffee ground, produces an excellent 350ml brew on the Bloom. As an aside, I’ll have an article up soon about the Bloom and how it, along with espresso, siphon, and the V60 have become my defacto brewing methods for testing all grinders.
The Virtuoso+ with the Espro Bloom - the latest default brewer we use to test grinders.
On Daily Use
The Baratza Virtuoso+ is a pleasure to use because it is quick, it is quiet, it is easy to use, and it takes up very little counter space. The grind bin lights are a great addition, and if you grind directly into a portafilter using the grind-on-demand button, they really are a serious upgrade to the user experience.
Speaking of grinding directly into a portafilter: this whole experience is upgraded by the digital timer real time readout and the grind on demand feature the Virtuoso+ has. With the previous version of this grinder, you had to eyeball your dose into the portafilter, guessing when to stop pressing the front-mounted pulse button. On the + model, no more guesswork once you know the timing of your espresso dose (which you would figure out using the dial in procedure I outlined above).
On our test Virtuoso+, I know my baseline for a 18.5g dose of espresso for a Breville Dual Boiler is a grind setting of 7 and a timer setting of 12.1 seconds, based on my own dialing in with a specific coffee. So to grind on demand, I hold the portafilter into the grinds area (with the grinds bin removed), and press and hold the control knob, grinding coffee directly into the portafilter until I reach 12.1 seconds on the display. Even better, I grind for about 8 seconds, remove the portafilter and settle the ground coffee in it, and then re-insert it, and continue grinding until it gets to 12.1 seconds.
Another thing I’ve noticed in a few months’ use of the Virtuoso+: they’ve really tamed the static you typically see with a lot of coffee grinders. A combination of materials used and design choices make this a fairly static free grinder. That said, I have noticed on a few humid days static is a bit of an issue, but a quick stir of the beans in the hopper with a wet spoon handle solves that.
Specific Brewing Method Thoughts
Here’s my experience so far with other brewing methods (besides the Bloom brewer, mentioned above).
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Espresso
This is not an espresso-primary grinder, but can do an acceptable espresso grind. Because of the rather macro adjustments in grind fineness at the espresso range, you will have to play around with the dose to get a properly dialed in espresso shot (if you normally dose 18.5g, you’ll have to play around from 17.5-19.5g to dial in your shots using this grinder.
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Moka Pot
No problems at all doing a moka pot grind, which is usually just a tad bit coarser than espresso.
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AeroPress
Because people use the AeroPress for a lot of different reasons and brewing practices, there’s also a wide range in the grind settings people expect. Some put 15g in and grind it between espresso and drip grind (around 450 microns); some do a fine drip grind (around 650microns), some do a Kone filter style grind (about 950+ microns) and steep for a long time using the inverted brewing method. Fortunately, the Virtuoso can handle all these grind ranges quite well and fast. Output for almost anything you want to throw at the AeroPress is nice and even from the Virtuoso+.
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Pourover
Again, very capable of doing a wide range of pour over styles, for all filtering materials from cloth to paper to metal. Very even particle size distribution means metal filter brewing results in a nice even cup with not much grit.
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Siphon Coffee
Same story as pour over: The Virtuoso+ is tailor made for siphon coffee grinding.
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Auto Drip Batch Coffee
At the risk of being a broken record, the same is true here as it it is for siphon and pour over. The grinder does have a limit of 40 seconds max grinding time, which will output about 85g of coffee; this may be too little for massive batch coffee, brewing as much as 1.5l (which would require up to 90g of coffee or more). This means you’d have to grind for the max time, pour those grounds into the big flat filter basket, and grind for another 5 seconds or so.
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Press Pot
At the risk ofI would like to see a slightly coarser overall grind with less particles than the Virtuoso+ produces, but this is a limitation of conical burrs. Flat burr grinders do a much better job when grinding particle size outputs at around 1200 microns or bigger. Still, the Virtuoso+ is way better at press pot grinding than the Sette series is.being a broken record, the same is true here as it it is for siphon and pour over. The grinder does have a limit of 40 seconds max grinding time, which will output about 85g of coffee; this may be too little for massive batch coffee, brewing as much as 1.5l (which would require up to 90g of coffee or more). This means you’d have to grind for the max time, pour those grounds into the big flat filter basket, and grind for another 5 seconds or so.
The Cost
The most important thing I can tell you about the Baratza Virtuoso+ is that it is an investment, long term. It costs $250, which for many people seems like a lot of money. But I know a lot of people who will drop $100 on a walmart-shelf “name brand” grinder only to see it fail after 2 or 3 years worth of use. Then they spend another $100 on another “name brand” grinder, and repeat the process.
When you buy a Baratza grinder, you’re buying a “generational product”. One designed to work for a decade without any issues, and decades longer if you do regular maintenance, like replacing a burr set or internal gears. Sounds like rocket science? It really isn’t, and Baratza has hundreds of instructional videos on doing pretty much every possible repair on their grinders.
The best part is, Baratza doesn’t charge an arm and a leg for replacement parts. I always think back to La Marzocco at one point charging $500 for a replacement drip tray cover for GS/3 machines, and then you find out Baratza charges $10 for the entire main housing replacement chassis for a Virtuoso. If La Marocco was selling that chassis, it would $150. This really shows you how some companies care about happy customers and others… not so much.
I like to think in terms of amortization of the cost of an expensive coffee product over the expected life of it. If you spend $100 on a department store grinder, it’s reasonable to expect it to last 3-5 years, making the cost about $33 to $20 per year depending on its life. There’s also almost zero chance of repairs if something breaks, like a grinds bin or a selection dial.
A Baratza Virtuoso+ costs $250, but will give you at least 10 years of service trouble free, and probably another 10 years of service with some minor maintenance, and burr replacement; figure less than $100 for the maintenance (including shipping) and its cost per year is just $17.50 over the grinder’s usable life.
As an aside, I have a Baratza Virtuoso from 2006, one that has ground so much coffee (it saw cupping duty in the CoffeeGeek Lab) I’ve had to replace the burrs twice. And it still runs well to this day, and doesn’t even sound that much louder than the new Virtuoso+.
Something to think about.
Compared to Others
I have done some extensive testing of this grinder compared to other models on the market, but will save that evaluation for the full review for the Virtuoso+.
The closest grinder in its price range is the Breville Smart Grinder Pro, which takes a very different approach to “features” and user interface, compared to the Virtuoso+. Both produce fantastic output for their price range. The Breville offers a lot more in the way of features. But Breville treats these grinders as “throwaway” type products – if they break, there’s very few repair options. That brings the overall value down for me.
Directly competing products, but both with very different user interface philosophies.
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ConclusionVirtuoso+
Very slightly refined over the years, this is a tried and true package.
I’ve been testing the Baratza Virtuoso+ for about 3 months, off and on, since receiving our test unit nearly a year ago. I was sorely tempted to put out a full review on it, but I still have a couple of long term tests I want to conduct with the grinder before doing so. Because of all this, this is probably one of the longest “First Looks” I’ve ever done, and I am ready to state some conclusions.
The Virtuoso+ isn’t the most advanced consumer grinder on the market, but it has something many other grinders – from the Fellow Ode to the Niche Zero and others – do not have: a pedigree. It also has Baratza, the absolute industry leader in after-sales support (in and out of warranty) behind it. Both of these things have major value.
If you buy a Virtuoso+, you will be getting a grinder that is very capable of seeing decades (plural) of use. Its output from moka pot through to chemex is superb and fast, and it is also capable of a decent espresso grind and press pot output. The grinder is quiet, fast with up to 2g/second output, and has a well thought out, easy to use interface.
This grinder can conform to your needs very easily. Use it without grinds bin for grinding directly into a portafilter. Grind on demand, with a count-up timer, for finding your best timings for your preferred brewing methods and amounts. Use the convenient .1 second timer for automatically grinding nearly identical doses between uses. If you’re a single dose kind of person, using Baratza’s single dose bean hopper is an option too with this grinder.
I already know this grinder is going to be on our recommended list. Grinders like the Breville Smart Grinder Pro offer more overall features and abilities, but lack the after-sales support and absolutely rock solid build quality the Virtuoso+ offers. There’s the Fellow Ode to consider, but the original model has a lot of reported issues (the company has since come out with the Fellow Ode 2, which apparently addresses those issues; at some point, we’ll contact Fellow to see if we can get a review unit).
In terms of longevity, I’ve had a Virtuoso grinder plugging away here since 2006, and it is still going strong; the new Virtuoso+ model, with its even better build quality, should outperform that time-tested model.
I feel very confident recommending this coffee grinder if you’re looking for a multipurpose machine for all your coffee brewing needs.
If you find this review helpful, and want to buy a Baratza Virtuoso+, please consider doing so via our Amazon Affiliate Link. If you prefer, buy it from your regular vendor, but ask them if they are supporting and advertising on CoffeeGeek: your feedback to them is invaluable to use here.
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