Re: sony products - 270/220 master/slave questions

I have a 270 / 200 combo. If you choose to operate the players in a master/slave configuration (versus totally independently) you connect them via an slink cable, the same way you connect them to the Slink-e. You also route the audio out (analog only, unfortunately) from the slave player to the audio inputs on the 270 master player. The audio outputs from the 270 then go to your single CD audio input on your receiver (again, only the analog audio outputs support mixing two players).

From that point on, the slave player essentially becomes completely controlled by the master player. When you turn on the master player, it turns on the slave player. You select CD's exclusively through the master player; if the disc happens to be in the slave player, the master player will send the appropriate commands to play it. All disc text labeling information and memory is exclusively entered and stored in the master player; it has memory slots for up to 400 discs. The slave player knows nothing about this info; it simply deals with disc numbers sent to it by the master player (invisibly to you, of course, who simply deals with the disc name on the master player).

This does present a problem for using these players with CDJ, which wants to deal with two separate players. Commands from CDJ get interfered with by commands from the master player, which also occasionally tells the slave player to stop playing so it will be in a known state. I solved this by creating a small circuit (with Colby's help) connected to the expansion port on the Slink-e that controls a relay. When CDJ starts, it sends an Slink-e command to open this relay, and when it exits it sends another command to close the relay. The relay interrupts a direct slink connection between the two players when it is open. So, while CDJ is running it sees two independent players on separate slink busses. Otherwise, the players are connected together in their normal master/slave relationship for standalone operation.