As a result, Apple has discontinued development and maintenance of their FireWire Core Audio driver for the new Mac OS X El Capitan. With significant improvements to USB audio and the introduction of Thunderbolt, the performance and stability offered with FireWire audio interfaces has been surpassed. Apple began to phase out FireWire connectivity in 2012 on all Mac computers. Relying on Apple’s Core Audio driver offers many benefits - low latency performance, outstanding OS integration and the resources of Apple’s superior engineering team. Duet FireWire, Ensemble FireWire along with several audio interfaces from other manufacturers’ also take advantage of this driver, meaning that the audio driver needed for your Duet FireWire or Ensemble FireWire comes with your Mac and is supported by Apple. In 2003, Apogee released Mini-Me & Mini-DAC, which were the first interfaces to utilize Apple’s FireWire Core Audio driver, included in Apple’s Mac OS X. Maybe the bad old days of needing a dedicated audio computer? Or, of course, spend 5 or 10 grand and be up to date with an interface that doesn't do anything any better.
Back to the bad old days of double checking everything before updating OS. It worked fine with the Thunderbolt/Firewire hardware adapter. Lloydcole wrote:I just got this note from Apogee - I have 3 Firewire interfaces (my son uses one) including the Ensemble which I bought in 2008 to make a live album.