On this page youll find an impressive variety of usbfire audio interfaces for both macs and pcs and with a little time and effort, youll be sure to spot something that. Whereas, people implement gigabit ethernet interfaces all the time. Advertisement speed aside, the big difference between firewire and usb 2. Can i use a firewire to usb adapter to connect my firewire. By the way, no law says a usbc connector has to run usb 3. At owc s website, you can buy a fw800 enclosure and put as big of a drive as you want in it, so there isnt a limit of 640gb. Ieee 941995 the spec that apple trademarked as firewire, was introduced in 1994 with speeds up to 400mbs. I know nothing about audio interfaces or compatibility. The only way the data transfer could work is if youre using usb 2 or 3, for the relavite firewire port. Usb is widely in use especially with small computer peripherals. Implementing firewire costs a little more than usb, which led to the adoption of usb as the standard for connecting most.
Its maximum transfer rate is up to 10 times faster than the usb 2. Firewire cable 9pin4pin cable, firewire 800 9pin to firewire 400 4pin for canon panasonic sony camera camcorder connect to apple imac 27 macbook pro computer. Firewire and usb share a number of characteristics but differ in some important ways. There are three popular versions of the usb and these are usb 1. Syntech usb c to usb adapter 2 pack, thunderbolt 3 to usb 3. When we connected the macbook pro to a 2tb western digital my book studio drive and copied. Use firewire with devices that connect using a firewire 400 or firewire 800 cable. Usb 1 and 2 devices function quite happily when connected to a usb 3 port.
Thunderbolt 3 supports usb, firewire and thunderbolt devices via adapters. If usb hard drives are in use while burning a dvd via usb, it might slow the dvd burning. Overall, it should be preferred if you are looking for audio and video applications, while usb is the technology you should go for, in case of computer peripherals. Two video cameras on a firewire network can share data with each other. Without getting long winded, with the advent of usb 3. In terms of speed, usb originally fell behind firewire but with its advancement through usb 3. Below are some of the common pros and cons for using a device with firewire. As our options for getting data from a to b increase usb 3, thunderbolt. What thunderbolt 3 and usbc mean to musicians and engineers. If youre choosing a new audio interface or a new computer, what are the pros and. Therefore, it is now possible to manufacture a usb 3. Its still a great option if you have a mac and dont want to pay thunderbolt prices, or if youre planning on recording in a large studio with a lot of gear. Yeah, speed definitely isnt the only concern with audio interfaces etc. Long story short, firewire works at a constant and fast rate, while usb sends data in bursts.
If you ever get a new mac, it wont have firewire, but will support usb 3. Most audio interfaces include linelevel analog inputs and outputs, one or more. Ieee94 its only firewire tm if its implemented with an appleapproved chipset in a mac makes a different approach to a serial bus than usb does. Firewire 400 and 800 series have maximum bandwidth speeds of 400 mbps and 800. When it does gain support, it will be considerably faster than fw800, which is the fastest for now. Most of what i found was comparisons to usb 2 or tests done before macs had usb 3 builtin. A usb audio interface is an excellent choice for mobile recording as the interface draws its power from the computer via the usb cable. Below is a run down of focusrite product compatibility with each port type.
How to connect firewire devices into new macs with thunderbolt 3usbc duration. Implementing firewire costs a little more than usb, which led to the adoption of usb as the standard for connecting most peripherals that do not require a highspeed bus. No, it is not possible to connect a firewire interface to your computers usb port via a firewire to usb adapter since this connection is not sufficient to run a firewire audio interface. I used a drum machine from my phone, sang and played the rest guitars, bass.
But the lack of attention the firewire update received doesnt bode well for its mainstream appeal. Jan 27, 2015 if the usb port is connected to the computer, the usb connection takes precedence and the other ports firewire, ethernet, sata or whatever will not be active. They differ particularly in data transfer speed with usb 1. Ps2 usb adpater,usb male to ps2 female splitter mouse keyboard ps2 converter extension cable,kvm barcode scanner ps2 to usb. A 4x drive will run at the same speed with firewire or usb if the computers usb is not being heavily used by other devices. It connects via usbc, and includes a usbc passthrough port, two usb 3. What is the main difference between firewire and usb. If you have a choice, look for a dvd drive with usb 3. There is no difference in terms of audio quality, just writeread speed. If your computer does not have a built in firewire port you should check if it has a pci or pcie slot desktop computer. Yes, especially if that port is and your mac has firewire 800. Going with my existing firewire 800 drives and the thunderbolt to firewire adapter or usb 3 drives. Look at carnage from all the audio interface people trying to come to grips with thunderbolt and usb 3.
A firewire audio interface connects with a firewire 400 or 800 connection and is comparable to usb 2. Product title 6 in 1 usb adapter travel kit cable to firewire 46p. Hp compaq a1610n front usb audio firewire hub 50029882 shtz cover bezel. Difference between usb and firewire difference between. I plugged in a 2 tb external drive that uses usb 3 thunderbolt. Firewire can provide a lot more power to devices compared to usb 5. If your using an iosenabled device, it will connect to the audio interface using usb. Apart from this, a firewire connection needs multiple and more critical circuit system and thus, it is difficult to maintain.
Solved how can i overcome lack of firewire port on laptop. I did searches online and really didnt come up with much in the way of current data or test. Can i connect a thunderbolt drive to the firewire 800 port on my. Main difference between firewire vs usb audio interface. If your mac notebook or desktop computer has more than one port like this, each port supports thunderbolt 3 and usbc. Usb3 is faster, up to about 5gb per second as opposed to about 800mb per second for firewire 800 3. The main difference between the two is that firewire is made to handle more data than usb, particularly audio and visual information. The key difference between firewire and usb is that firewire is intended for devices working with a lot more data things like camcorders, dvd players and digital audio equipment. Many people considered using firewire connections since they offered higher speeds than the usb 2. That makes adapters quite nontrivial and make the latency behavior for soundcard use, particularly fullduplex, not a good fit. In contrast, the current iteration of s3200 will top out at 3. Feb 24, 2012 firewire features a sustained transfer rate of 400 mbps fw800 is 800 mbs and its always the same.
Firewire needs a processor on both sides of the data transfer. I prefer the firewire method, all my audio interface devices are mutli. That being said, a 7200rpm hdd is not capable of writing fast enough to let thunderbolt or usb 3 operate at full speed, so the difference between the top two is only on an ssd. But when it comes to audio interfaces, we talk about the latency. With this, you dont have to carry around multiple adapters. Thunderbolt 3 supports usb, firewire and thunderbolt devices via adapters its important to check which protocol your computers ports support before purchasing peripherals such as an audio interface to ensure correct compatibility.
However, the report also notes that the imminent release of usb 3. Usb firewire is a peertopeer protocol, meaning that every device on a firewire network is equally capable of talking to every other device. Aug 10, 2012 going with my existing firewire 800 drives and the thunderbolt to firewire adapter or usb 3 drives. The latest release of firewire, promises a data transfer speed of 800 mbps, while usb 3. Nov 30, 2015 these thing evolve, until theyre dropped. Almost every audio engineer agrees that for audio recording, a firewire audio interface is better than an usb audio interface. But a hard drive connected via usb has always been slow compared to those using apples firewire, firewire 800, and most recently. Is there a way to connect a firewire audio interface to a usb. Firewire and usb audio interfaces are the most commonly used audio interfaces in the music industry. In general, firewire devices support a higher bandwidth than usb 2. Pros firewire devices support higher bandwidth than usb 2.