I have an Apogee Ensemble with two Firewire 400 outs. I have a Mac Mini 4,1 with one Firewire 800 in. I run two screens, so I use the Apple adapter on the display port (or is it a Thunderbolt?) out and the HDMI to connect those two. I'd like to purchase some UA plugins, but their accelerator uses a Firewire connection, which on my Mini is taken by the Ensemble. What's my best move? I'm tech-lite, but persistent. Thanks! Frank

Your Ensemble has two FW400 ports on it. You should be able to use one of those to daisy chain the devices together. But having looked up both, there may be a catch. I'm not sure which UAD unit you have specifically, but from what I can find they have FW800 ports. I'd plug the UAD in first, as it is native FW800. Then get a FW800 to FW7400 cable, which you are already using, to connect the Ensemble to the UAD. Does it really matter which comes first? Not really. But here's the big GOTCHA! to be aware of. When you plug a FW400 device into a FW800 port, or add it to a FW800 device chain, that port shifts itself down to FW400 speeds. So even though your Mac has a native FW800 port on it, when you plug in the Ensemble, it becomes a FW400 port. The good news is that for audio work, you shouldn't notice any difference. I hope this information helps.

Thank you, BenB! I am proceeding in this direction.