NAD M5 no sound from Digital Coax out SACD

I assume you have a pair of RCA's from the DAC to the M3 on one input. Continue to use the single digital XLR cable from the M5 to the DAC for CD's and then also run another pair of RCA's directly from the M5 to the M3, bypassing the DAC, for SACD. You will need to change the input on the M3 depending on what you are playing, CD or SACD.

thanks Ncarv. thats what i'm going to do.

to clarify i'm using the coax out on my M5 for digital. the XLR out on the M5 is AES/EBU and the DAC dosent have an input for that.

I guess what i need to figure out is should i go analog balanced or RCA for the SACD or vice versa for CD. What i'm trying to do is to get the best sound for both formats. i have way more CDs than SACDs so i probably will use the balanced connection for my DAC (CD signal path). i haven't done much experimentation but i would assume the XLR connetion would provide better performance.

XLR may or may not give better performance. Why not just try it both ways and listen?