Firewire Question for iMac

Yes and you can get these cables just about anywhere

iMacs produced between 1998-2009 had Firewire 400 (6 pin). iMacs produced after October 2009 had Firewire 800 (9 pin). All new iMacs have Firewire 800 (9 pin). There's a good reference article here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_1394

The Weiss Dac 2 has Firewire 400, so if your iMac is older than Oct 2009, you'll need a FW 400 cable like this:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/1394A66012/

If your iMac is newer than Oct 2009, you'll need a FW400 to FW800 cable like this:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/1394B96012/

Or you can use a FW400 cable with a FW800 adaptor on one end:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/FIR1369AD/

The recent generation iMac's do not have a Firewire 400 port. They have a Firewire 800 port instead, which uses a 9-pin connector. You would need a 9-pin to 6-pin cable, also known as a "bilingual" cable. Granite Digital makes some good ones, although they are a bit more expensive than run-of-the-mill cables.

Firewire 800 is backwards compatible with Firewire 400 devices except for the cable type.

Regards,
-- Al

Thank you for the response Al - my iMac has both Firewire 400 and Firewire 800 so I guess it is already an older version! LOL! Given that I have the 400 port then 6-pin male to 6-pin male is the right choice. BTW, I use the 800 port for an external HD.

Mingles thanks so much for your response. It was very helpful. Since my FW800 port is being used for an external HD I will use the FW400 for the Weiss. It will be a straight 6 pin to 6 pin.

Not sure why my iMac has both FW400 and FW800 but heck, I'll take it!

Not sure why my iMac has both FW400 and FW800 but heck, I'll take it!

During the transition from FW400 to FW800, iMacs had both. You're lucky!

I have had good luck with Audioquest Forest Firewire 6 to 9 pin cables. Some sellers on Amazon sell them at quite reasonable prices.

I've just found a Pioneer DVD Elite DVD 47Ai player with iLink (aka FireWire).

I want to rip my personal CD's to Apple Lossless format via FireWire and store them on the Mac. Where will I find the necessary drivers to see FireWire as an input choice on my Mac running 10.5? Or do I need to upgrade to 10.6 and load Garage Band to get FireWire input drivers?

Or am I completely wrongheaded, and I really need some intermediate hardware that I don't know about yet?

thanks very much for any tips/tricks.
Bruce

Bruce, when you connect the Pioneer to the Mac via Firewire, and you insert a disk into the Pioneer, the disk should appear on the Mac desktop. You shouldn't have to install any drivers. If the disk doesn't show up, it could mean a number of problems. It could be a bad Firewire port, or a bad Firewire cable, or a problem with the Pioneer.

But I have to ask why you want to do this in the first place? If your Mac has an internal cd/dvd drive, you should use that to rip your music. If it doesn't have a cd drive (or it's broken), then the Pioneer makes sense.

I hope this helps.
Mark