Since I purchased the CD5XS some 12 years ago I have always used the RCA output using a Nordost Red Dawn interconnect. Whilst sorting through a drawer I found the DIN lead that came with the CD player and thought I would try it. However, I can get no sound out of my speakers. Well, I can get a very small tinny sound if I crank the volume up to the max. Even with the Red Dawn connected switching the output switch on the back does nothing. Am I missing something here or is the CD5XS faulty?
Assuming the cable is ok, I thought you needed to select whether the output is via RCA or DIN (or both) via the remote. The switch on the back just selects between digital or analogue output mode.
Edit : Here you go
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Thanks James, I will try this later. There is no mention of this in the CD5XS manual, only in the CD5si manual but it may well be the same for both models.
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Here’s the manual which this was extracted from. It covers the CD5XS.
Hope you get it sorted 
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All working fine now. Surprised to find that the Lavender cable shades the Nordost; improved bass control and an overall more solid sound, if that makes sense. I will leave it for a few weeks and change back to see if I miss it or not.
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The lavender grey cable is not to be underestimated. It was good enough for Naim’s top sources for many years.
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The reason the a DIN cable works better than any phono cable is because it is a balanced type connector, and offers a clean Earth, unlike a phone cable, which usually has a chassis Earth connection. The way Naim equipment Earthing is part of the sound reproduction, that makes me a sceptic of the Chord groundARAY connectors with Naim equipment.
Naim’s use of DIN connectors does form part of the common signal earthing system they use, but it is unbalanced in all implementations. The only balanced connections they use are the XLR outputs on the Atom HE and Statement.
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Interesting how the unbalanced output from the preamp connects to the balanced input of a 250 (or above) power amp? You may well be correct?
The Cannon XLR inputs on the NAP250, NAP300 and NAP500 are not balanced, they are single ended.
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As Richard says, the power amp inputs are unbalanced. It’s a little unusual to use XLRs in this way and people tend to assume that XLR = balanced because in most cases it is.
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