USB veresus FIREWIRE?

I was looking at a second hand Weiss DAC2. But I am not sure if I want to still buy one. The Weiss DAC2 sounds best using the firewire input.

Will Jriver or Foobar support firewire? Will there still be firewire PCIe cards available in the future? etc.

Both my Metric Halo DACs utilize Firewire ports, but it seems MH is now offering an 'upgrade' path to USB integration with 1ms latency drivers to support both Windoze AND Linux.

For my purposes, I'm fine using Firewire, and I don't have to worry about paying premium prices for boutique, audiophile USB cables. As far as FW cables go, a GoldX or Oyaide d+ still does the job quite well, and at low cost.

Guys, FireWire is the standard. We use USB for mice and printers.

Very interesting. Reminds me of the Betacam fiasco.

I only stated why they removed Firewire (did not cost Apple anything)
from the Ipod. It was a big thread to security.

from 2007:

A security consultant based in New Zealand has
released a tool that can unlock Windows computers in seconds without
the need for a password.

Boileau, a consultant with Immunity Inc., said he did not release the tool
publicly in 2006 because "Microsoft was a little cagey about
exactly whether Firewire memory access was a real security issue or not
and we didn't want to cause any real trouble".

But now that a couple of years have passed and the issue has not
resolved, Boileau decided to release the tool on his website.

To use the tool, hackers must connect a Linux-based computer to a
Firewire port on the target machine. The machine is then tricked into
allowing the attacking computer to have read and write access to its
memory.

With full access to the memory, the tool can then modify Windows'
password protection code, which is stored there, and render it
ineffective.

Whole problem started when hackers created strip-down version of
Linux for Ipod and used it in few instances to hack companies
computers thru Firewire's DMA.

In addition to Firewire being expansion bus it is also peer-to-peer bus
allowing networking between computers while USB as peripheral bus
works only in Host-Client mode.

Kijanki,

Actually, Firewire was never a real threat to personal, corporate or net security. Firewire died because when it became an open source protocol and Apple couldn't extract any more profit from it. And also from the fact that Apple's royalties made it too expensive and unattractive for third-party (aka Chinese) device manufacturers.

As it turns out, the real security threat is actually USB; specifically, USB controller chips with firmware that is reloadable or reprogrammable on the fly. Google "BadUSB" and scan through the reports. There is no easy fix for this bad design flaw.

Companies are fighting for every penny. Change in video
ports is an example. My wife used few company laptops over
the years and every time port needed new adapter to connect
to monitor. Ports are often the same but name and connector
changed to avoid paying fees. It happens everywhere.
Helvetica and Switzerland (and many other names) are exactly
the same font with different name to avoid paying (font
cannot be registered but name can).

Apple killed Firewire in Ipods being afraid that they can be
forbidden in large companies (very bad publicity) since they
could be used for hacking of company systems having Direct
Memory Access as a part of Firewire definition (potentially
being able to bypass passwords).

USB is a Peripheral bus that has a lot of overhead running
under protocol at about half of advertised speed engaging
computer's main processor in transactions. Firewire is an
Expansion bus that runs at full speed (guaranteed bandwidth
made it popular in broadcasting) without engaging main
processor.
I use external Firewire Hard Drives with my MacMini (equiped
with Firewire connector) for music playback.

Apple always pretty much demands a premium royalty for pretty much anything in the domain that only it controls.

And they usually get it, which means they are doing something right, namely keeping things as simple yet usable as possible for the masses. That's the Apple business model which works well. Most people do not want to have to make technical decision on their own. Apple makes more of them for you than any of their competitors, but for a premium.

I believe the main reason is that many years ago Apple (which developed Firewire) demanded a royalty for it, on a per use basis, which Intel and the computer motherboard manufacturers considered to be excessive. Therefore Intel designed USB capability into its chipsets, and the rest is history.

Although Firewire continues to be extensively used in some applications, video editing being one example.

Regards,
-- Al