Cable will solve FireWire connection problem

October 16, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

Q. I am trying to connect my FireWire video converter to my Macbook Pro. Both say they have FireWire, but my Mac has a square connection, and my converter’s connection port looks like a long rectangle with a V at the end. Are they compatible or am I out of luck?

C.A., Plymouth, Minn.

A. They are compatible. There are two kinds of FireWire, FireWire 400 (just called FireWire) and FireWire 800. FireWire has a four-pin connection, which looks like a tiny square with a groove in it, and a six-pin connection, which looks rectangular with a V-shape on one side and square on the other. They are all compatible, and four-pin to four-pin, four-pin to six-pin and six-pin to six-pin cables all exist. FireWire 800 has a large, square connection and is backwards-compatible with FireWire.

Your converter has a six-pin FireWire connection, and your Macbook Pro has a FireWire 800 connection. Get a FireWire 800 to six-pin FireWire cable, connect them and you will be set to go. The cables can be found online for less than $10.

Holiday products

With the holiday shopping season coming up, for the rest of the year I am going to devote part of the column to some exceptional products and values, as well as build some home theater and music systems as I did in the beginning of the year.

Kicking things off will be some excellent, extremely affordable speakers for music or home theater. Speakers are the most important part of the audio reproduction chain and determine how your system will actually sound. I am always excited to find great-sounding speakers that are downright cheap to buy. Best Buy’s now-discontinued Insignia NS-B2111 bookshelf speakers are a good example of this. Selling for only $89 per pair, they had rich, detailed sound and good looks that belied their price. Over the years, they have been one of my most popular recommendations.

Though the Insignias are gone, they won’t be missed as Pioneer has introduced a new family of speakers that sets a new standard for good sound at prices anyone can afford. Designed by acclaimed speaker engineer Andrew Jones, Pioneer’s new model line looks a lot like the Insignia NS-B2111 with their black, simulated-wood finish and curved cabinets. Though the cabinets may look similar, the innards are not with Pioneer using higher-quality parts throughout.

I reviewed the SP-FS51-LR towers, selling for $199 per pair. Though they lack a bit of the fullness, evenness and delicacy that distinguish the very best speakers from the rest, the Pioneers have excellent sound quality that is pleasingly warm, detailed and dynamic. Given the price, it’s hard to find fault, and they are a better value than the Insignias ever were. The Pioneer towers don’t need stands to sound their best, and with three woofers per tower, the bass is much deeper and more dramatic.

You can build a matched home theater using the towers as front speakers, the $79 SP-C21 as center channel and the $99 SP-BS21-LR as surrounds. Add a $149 Pioneer powered subwoofer or a $90 powered subwoofer from monoprice.com and you have a complete home-theater speaker system that will make you smile big for as little as $450. See the whole speaker line at www.pioneerelectronics.com.

Don Lindich writes about consumer electronics. Submit questions to www.soundadviceblog.com.

2011, McClatchy-Tribune News Service Distributed by MCT Information Services