Any updates on firewire and SACD?

Firewire is a universal interface, much like USB is. As a generic interface, it's up to the user to define what data flows through and whether the data is encrypted or not. So to answer your question, um, not sure what the question is to be honest...

jeff: the reason the question is important lies in the stndardization of connections/ports for sacd data transmission. if one company , for example, chose to make a transport that used a proprietary connection (as accuphase has done), then that transport could not be used with other companies' dacs unless adapters were available for those dacs. having a more-or-less standardized interface allows consumers to mix and match different companies' components. the copy protection of the data streams "allowed" to be carried via firewire is, indeed, a separate issue. -cfb

I believe that dCS is shipping a firewire based transport called the Verdi. I am not sure who does/owns the encryption algorithm. I think Sony sets how the signal is encrypted and it's up to the record label to enable it on the disk. I think Stereophile came across a SACD disk that put out 24/96 on the digital out - if I remember correctly.