Hi

Can anyone tell me if the mackbook's firewire port will have enough power to run a focusrite saffire please?

Echom

I know that the MacBook outputs 8W power through the firewire which is definitely enough to power the M-Audio FW410. It should be enough for the Saffire as well. (Would be a bit strange if it didn't, wouldn't it?)
Be aware though that phantom power is a no go with firewire only so you better keep the Saffire's PSU handy if you want to track with a condenser.

Thanks solaar!

'fraid not, bro.

i got a core2 mbpro & saffire. not enough power thru the built in firewire port.

havent tried from a expresscard firewire yet, might work this way.
otherwise u stuck with the bloody wall wart psu.

ah..forgot also to mention the powerbookg4 titanium i used to have ran the saffire on firewire power only, and i had phantom power with this.... so any of the oldskool g4 powerbooks should be nice mobile studio with the saffire.

also if it helps the decision process, im still having problems with the intel drivers on the safffire. might be better looking elsewhere, bro..

I've heard this was a known issue with the Saffire and MBpro. Focusrite have since changed the specs on the more recent saffire serials to adapt to MacBooks. Go double-check but I bet if you buy a recent model you'll be fine (or at least you can have Focusrite exchange it for a working one).

As for tracking with phantom on firewire only, well you can take the risk. It may or may not work with your mic but from what I've noticed, even if it looks like it works you can get those short dropouts which you're not aware of when you're in the middle of a session but which can become a major pain later at mixdown.

I have had the Focusrite Saffire for few days here.
Was working fine with Macbook

Weird it's broken under MBP.

It made me curious so I double checked on the Focusrite site. They state that the MBP has in fact lower FW output and apparently not enough power to boot the Saffire. I know for a fact that it does work on a Macbook. Bizarre... why would Apple do such nonsense? Or is somebody BS-ing here?