10.8 & 10.9, odd audio issue with Griffin Firewave

[someoneelse]

I've been using a Griffin Firewave with hackies since I started around 10.5. It's still going strong and has been natively supported in each version of OS X I've used. Great little device. However, I have seen an odd issue going back as far as 10.8 at least and it persists in 10.9.

It will output no audio at boot, but not on every boot. It's random. Sometimes it's fine, sometimes it isn't. I can adjust the volume, see the overlay just fine, but there's no sound. The really odd part is that this can be fixed by opening Audio MIDI Setup and changing the format, generally from 44.1 to 48 or vice versa. Once I do that, audio works no problem. This doesn't seem to be dependent on any of the Multibeast audio drivers. I believe I saw it when I installed Mavericks before I had the onboard audio set up. I'm using a nice little FW800/400 PCIe card with a TI chipset for Firewire, not the crummy onboard Via chipset. I'm only using it for stereo output at the moment, but I don't think that's relevant. The Firewave application still works, but various settings don't seem to fix the problem there, either.

 

[someoneelse]

Well, after switching from the FW card back to the onboard Via FW port, the problems have disappeared completely. I also was having issues with the occasional solid lockup with zero explanation in any of the logs. Looks like my FW card went south or there's some issue with the specific TI chipset. The card itself is a Rosewill RC-506E, over two years old. Maybe I should pick up another one and spend a bit more on a known-good brand.

EDIT: Scratch that, same old crap. I've also had an issue with the audio cutting out entirely, sometimes stuttering ad infinitum, sometimes just silent. Zero indication as to why in any logs. Reboot and it's silent until I change the format to 48hz/44.1hz.

Ah, there is something in the logs.

9/14/14 7:58:48.000 PM kernel[0]: Write for 0xffffff80266c3500 done, status e00002d6

The first address is not always the same, but the status is. Not sure what to make of it.

 

[jussiissa]

Hello , i have just bought such an item for powermac g5. could you recommend a particular speaker surround set for it that has the appropriate cables for the Firewave? thanks!