I'm using an Alesis HD24 recorder in one of the rooms here and it's incredible. No computer in there (actually an old DOS PC running Voyetra) so just using as a tape deck and sounds and works INSANELY well.
Anyway, I've got one of these Alesis HD24 1394 Fireport deals for attaching the drives to. Can only find early OS X drivers and software. Do you guys know of OS9 versions of any of this stuff? I never had this "back in the day" when it was out.
I have been using the HD24 for recording live for over 15 years, converters always sound awesome, best stand-alone HD recorder I ever bought.
anyway, BT, you can use the Fireport
or ANY FW external case and use the 3rd party free software;
but the highest OS you can go without glitches is Snow Leopard; it works flawlessly and fast, I have my Mac Pros triple boot to SL, ML and El Cap; I only boot to SL to transfer from the HD24 drives. They also sell caddys that convert SATA to be used in the HD24, but I never needed or tried them
https://ringbreak.dnd.utwente.nl/~mrjb/hd24tools/Low mids and bass are very warm on the HD24, I never got the XL mod, but it is suppose to be even better, IMO the box "sounds" so much better than ADAT, and produces results similar to a Tascam DA38