Firewire and Apple Computers

Beware of committing to Firewire-based audio and MIDI interfaces for new and upcoming Apple computers.

My recently delivered iMac Pro will not recognize a Firewire connection to an 828mk3; no adapters no converters will work, not even the Firewire port on the back of the older Thunderbolt 2 monitors.

Apple tech support stated that the Firewire interface is not supported by them and, in effect, use it at your own risk.

Happily the 828mk3 also has a USB interface; this does work, including via a 50' cat6 cable and a USB extender, which was needed got span the distance between the computer and the 828s on the other side of the room. Still in the midst of debugging this; timing may be different than the Firewire setup.

Beware of committing to Firewire-based audio and MIDI interfaces for new and upcoming Apple computers.

My recently delivered iMac Pro will not recognize a Firewire connection to an 828mk3; no adapters no converters will work, not even the Firewire port on the back of the older Thunderbolt 2 monitors.

Apple tech support stated that the Firewire interface is not supported by them and, in effect, use it at your own risk.

Happily the 828mk3 also has a USB interface; this does work, including via a 50' cat6 cable and a USB extender, which was needed got span the distance between the computer and the 828s on the other side of the room. Still in the midst of debugging this; timing may be different than the Firewire setup.

Can you still buy new FireWire based audio devices? Most have switched over the Thunderbolt or USB 3.0. FireWire has been defunct for many years now. I used to use a Focusrite Saffire Pro 14 but this stopped working many years ago when Focusrite stopped producing MacOS drivers for the most recent versions. I don't think many companies (maybe only RME) produce audio interfaces with FireWire connections now.

I attempted to use my Echo Audiofire 12 interfaces on a 2018 Mac mini. Took a string of adapters. Never got it to work right (not the least of which is that Echo stopped updating drivers a long time ago). Gave up and bought a MOTU interface that speaks Thunderbolt. Haven't looked back...