The Firewire conundrum?!

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Pip

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 17, 2004
Messages
634
Location
New York City
As I'm sure a just like a bunch of us I own a lot of Firewire (IEEE1394A) audio interface equipment. Some of it reliant on specific chipsets (in my case TI chipsets). I was wondering if anyone else has noticed the discord between the industries of computer technology and audio interface technology?

It seems to me that there is a big move away from IEEE1394 implimentation and a move towards USB 2 & 3 and Thunderbolt in the computer world yet in the audio world Firewire still is being marketed as if nothing is changing. It is true that a lot of the Firewire units seem to work on Thunderbolt with the use of a simple adapter cable, for now, also in desktop computers you can always get a card (if you have an open slot) but laptops whole different story.

I have to say I have considered unloading my audio interfaces while they still have value and jumping to something else just because of this issue.

Looking forward to a little feedback

 
Like anything else in the digital world, your subject to the will of the audio manufactures who are at the mercy of the computer guys. Considering audio makes up a small percentage of computer related usage the computer people are not thinking about all the audio guys when they decide to stop using connections. Remember scsi? then ultra wide scsi? Change will always be constant in the computer world as technology becomes available.  I have come to the conclusion that the moment you buy something in the daw world you are obsolete as with anything else computer. If your lucky you get some years out of it. Considering that at this time they do make thunderbolt to firewire cables I see no real reason to upgrade unless your system is no longer fitting your needs or not working properly. Digital changes so fast that when you upgrade one thing sure enough everything else must upgrade.  If your system is working for you great. If it's not meeting your needs then that's a whole other story.
I wouldn't upgrade unless you have to. Besides there will always be a market for legacy product as there will always be those people who like what they have and want to keep it running as long as possible.

 
Pip said:
It is true that a lot of the Firewire units seem to work on Thunderbolt with the use of a simple adapter cable, for now

There's somewhere on youtube a video where a guy tested a hardrive (FW800) connected to the computer both via a Thunderbolt adapter and straight to FW800 socket. The results showed that the adapter was slightly 'slower' than the direct FW800 connection. Not huge difference but still there was some difference.

 

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