“Linked amplifiers?” you ask The communication required between preamplifier and power amplifier(s) is more limited than between other components. In particular, the new 300 series Mark Levinson amplifiers will:

•toggle between standby and operate in conjunction with the Nº38(S) they are Linked to;

•when in standby, all of the standby indicator LEDs (sources, preamp and power amps) blink in sync with one another;

•report certain fault conditions to the preamplifier if they must shut down for some reason.

For this reason, it made sense to define a somewhat simpler communications Link between preamps and power amps. In this case, the Nº38 or Nº38S acts as the “master” to the power amplifier(s) “slave.” Multiple amps may be daisy- chained via their slave in and slave out ports. The Nº38 runs this smaller “net- work” and passes necessary information back and forth as needed.

Hence, our seemingly confusing nomenclature on the rear panels of the various products. “Master” is connected to “Slave In”, then the daisy-chain continues to Slave Out, to Slave In, to Slave Out, etc., until you reach the preamplifier’s Slave input. From there, you connect the Nº38’s Master to the power amp’s Slave In. If you have more than one amp in the system, daisy chain them Slave Out to Slave In (up to a maximum of six amplifiers). (See sample diagram below.)

 

slave out

Nº37

 

digital output

slave in

 

Link

 

cable

digital input

master

Nº36

 

analog output

 

Link

cable

any input

slave

Nº38

master

Link

cable

slave in

Nº333

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