Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter

Product Information

When it comes to bandwidth, the first-generation Firewire 400 standard (IEEE 1394a) is slightly worse (400Mbps) on paper than USB 2, but in practice it holds several advantages. It benefits from a peer-to-peer connection system compared with USB’s more intensive master/slave approach, meaning that Firewire wastes less of its bandwidth and offers more stable throughput of data. As a result, it usually achieves lower latencies than USB equivalents, and Firewire interfaces have sometimes offered higher I/O counts than USB 2 devices. All these factors made Firewire the preferred connection standard in larger studios for a long time. The performance gap has decreased in recent years, though, and in some cases, high-end USB 3 interfaces have managed lower latencies than Firewire ones.

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Many users have expressed surprise at the relatively slow uptake of USB 3 by audio-interface manufacturers, and it’s only in recent months that we’ve started to see more than the first couple of USB 3 models brought to market. While USB 3 does offer some advantages, there are several good reasons for the apparently slow progress.Let’s take an example of my MOTU 896 Firewire which is known as a legendary audio interface when it comes to conversion quality. It has a great DAC converter chip that adds depth and an analog feel to the audio recorded in this audio interface that we as recording engineers are actually seeking. It might seem like early days for USB 3, but we’re already starting to see the newer USB 3.1 standard appear on computers — notably on some new Apple MacBook and Google Chromebook portable models, but also on some desktop PC motherboards. The ‘USB 3.1 Gen 1’ (‘Gen’ meaning generation) ports found on the laptops mentioned don’t offer greater speed/bandwidth than USB 3.0, but they provide greater standardisation of the feature set and improved efficiency. The second generation of Firewire (Firewire 800, or IEEE 1394b) has also been around for a number of years now. It offers twice the bandwidth of FW400 so, as you might expect, most FW800 interfaces are high-I/O solutions, with the added benefit on some models that multiple interfaces can be daisy-chained for even more recording capability. It’s also a reason why there are fewer dedicated FW800 interfaces than FW400 ones: like USB 2, FW400 does more than enough for most home-studio users. If you’re choosing a new audio interface or a new computer, what are the pros and cons of the many different connection protocols that are on offer?