Hi Tim and All,
While I'm still not sure why you weren't getting signal when using the coaxial output from the Mini Me, I can explain why you will probably never get anything but a "copy probibit" message from the D8 taking the AES/EBU output from any device.
One of the differences in the AES/EBU specification as compared to the S/PDIF is the "channel status" bit. A true AES/EBU signal carries a "Professional channel status" whereas a S/PDIF signal carries "consumer channel status." This is somewhat confusing because many may think of professional as good and consumer as bad--NOT true in this case. Consumer channel status carries SCMS information and provided that it is the 00 or 11 code, we can record from it. Professional channel status, however, does not pass SCMS information and the D8/7/100 will default to "copy prohibit" since it effectively sees nothing. M-1s are not prone to this problem.
We first experienced this issue with the Graham-Patten ADC and DMIC 20's before working with them to change the channel status from professional to consumer. I have heard similar issues with a few AD-1000's, a lot of AD500's, and the earliest AD2K's (which were all changed with a firmware modification).
Happy Recording,
Marc