Firewire Question for iMac

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/

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!

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