Griffin 4019-FIRESS FireWave Surround Sound for Macs

by Griffin Technology

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 1.4 x 7.9 inches ; 11.4 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000A09IUS
• Item model number: 4019-FIRESS
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #41,701 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: February 6, 2006

Product Description

The Griffin FireWave gives you what you have been missing in your Mac experience - Surround Sound. FireWave has Dolby Digital¿ processors to bring Surround Sound to Macs for gaming, DVD players and iTunes. With the multitude of 5.1 surround sound speakers for PCs readily available, FireWave gives Mac users the ability to affordably upgrade their sound systems, with spectacular results.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally surround sound for the mac!, March 8, 2006

By 

M. Greenfield - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Griffin 4019-FIRESS FireWave Surround Sound for Macs (Personal Computers)

I am using this with a PPC mac mini and it works great! This is the first true external 5.1 audio solution for the mac and it does not dissapoint. It uses a combination of the mac midi settings and its own software. Audio quality is crisp and clean. I would recommend this product for sure!

It was really easy to setup. All you had to do was plug it in and it showed up right away in the midi settings. Just select it as your prefered device and you are good to go!

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars FireWave is good if you don't have optical..., October 10, 2007

By 

Macondray J. Steiger (Forestville, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Griffin 4019-FIRESS FireWave Surround Sound for Macs (Personal Computers)

I bought this FireWave to provide 5.1 speaker outputs from my MacPro. It works fine, but I found that buying a set of Logitech Z-5500 speakers and using the Mac's optical output a better route to go. Bottom line is that if you have a Mac running OSX 10.3.9 and above, but no surround outputs, this FireWire driven external sound card works well. If you have an optical output (MacPro, MacBookPro, etc.) consider new speakers with an optical audio input.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A solid product with a few glitches, February 6, 2007

By 

Aaron Semstudent "loverofthemac" (Cambridge, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Griffin 4019-FIRESS FireWave Surround Sound for Macs (Personal Computers)

I spent lots of time trying to find a decent sound card for my macbook--one that could work with my 4.1 klipsch system and also look like it belonged on my desk. The Firewave does all of the above, with a few exceptions.

I found that my mac sometimes cannot figure out how to send sound from mono sources (internet content and movies from my digital camera) when it is in the surround sound (Pro Logic II) mode. I have to restart the program with the surround option turned off in order to hear the sound. I look forward to software updates that will fix this problem in the future.

However, for my iTunes and iDVD sound, the FireWave is perfect: it sends clear 3D sound to all of my speakers. I think it is worth the hassle and I would make this purchase again.