Grumpy_Mike:
Yes that is what I said use a 74LS04.
If I hook CLK and SS up to the inverter, I'd have to change their polarity in my Arduino code, correct?
Also, what are these buffer chips that everybody keeps referring to? I googled around but couldn't find a general definition that sounded like it applied to this problem.
While I know I have a problem now with fan-out of the CLK and SS lines, is it safe to assume that the DATA lines are not effected by fan-out due to the shift registers in each MAX7219?