Transferring tracks from adat to adat using digital bus?

[Wireneck]

I have some drum tracks that I was copying from one adat to another through the digital bus. I noticed that the levels that are coming in on the second machine are quieter. I was just wondering if this is normal and if it isn't do you have any ideas how to fix it?
Im transfering from an Alesis Xt to a Lx-20. The machines are hooked up with a sync cable as well as the proper fiber optic cables for digital routing. The second machine's input is set for digital and the tracks are coming through but they are quieter. For example, track 1 might light 3 of the green lights on the meter when its playing but track 1 on the second machine barely lights the first green light. The level is still usable but im afraid when i transfer the tracks back to the master machine after editing the level will drop again. Any ideas?
I hope that made sense

[Blue Bear Sound]

It is absolutely NOT normal.... a digital signal transfer should not result in ANY change to the signal...

Sounds like being routed thru your digital buss (presumably on a digital mixer), it's being routed thru a fader or level-changing DSP somewhere....

If you wire the optics of the 2 units together directly, do you still see a level difference (if so, then there's a problem between the 2 machines) - you should be seeing EXACTLY the same level coming in as is going out...

[Wireneck]

Blue Bear,
i guess i used the wrong term when i said digital bus, i thought that was how alesis referred to it in the manual. Im sending tracks 4 and 5 from the XT to tracks 7 and 8 on the lx. Im doing this directly from machine to machine. Sorry if I was unclear.
Sonusman im monitoring from the analog inputs and i am not using the Elco connector on the Xt. The main thing i noticed was that visibly on the two machines meters the tracks do not look like exact digital copies of each other. I will have to go and check and try and listen and see how much volume loss there actually is.
Should i try swapping out the fiber optic cables? Could the two machines be in two different meter modes? I saw something about changing this in the manual but I dont really recall anything about it. Thanks for the help guys

[Wireneck]

Im a total retard, after i typed my last post i went back and listened to the tracks i was editing. Turns out i solved my own problem.
Since i was transferring tracks 4 and 5 from the xt to tracks 7 and 8 on the lx i wasnt paying attention to the fact that 7 and 8 on the lx should match 4 and 5 on the xt not 7 and 8.
DOh! I feel like a retard. I was comparing the wrong meters. Oh well at least i figured it out.