Issue with LaCie speakers & MBP

[$3ptember]

Hi everyone,

I just got my new (first! ) Macbook Pro recently and also a pair of LaCie speakers. Unfortunately, these speakers work via Firewire 400, and the new MBPs only have a FW800 port.

So I got a 400 to 800 FW adapter, hoping to finally hear music out of something else than the built-in speakers. To my surprise, despite all the reviews on the net regarding the ease-of-use of these speakers, they don't work.
Let me be a little more precise:
- I plugged them in correctly, according to the instructions: secondary speaker in the main speaker, FW400 in the adapter and adapter in the FW800
- They are powered on: the blue led at the bottom of the main speaker is on
- You can hear the specific sound of speakers that are on
- If I connect also the line-in cable to the main speaker and to the headphones jack of the MBP, I get sound, only at a relatively poor quality
- The speakers don't show in the System Preferences - Sound.

My only other option to try them is on a PC (haven't tried it yet).

Any ideas? All of the above do not indicate any issue with the FW port, the speakers or the adapter.

Thanks for the help.

 

[$3ptember]

Latest development: I reset the Firewire port by removing the battery (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1317?viewlocale=en_US). The speakers are now visible in System Profiler - > Firewire.

However, they still do not show in Sound Preferences, so I'm not able to select them.

What to do?