CD, Carrier Detect, is a signal that is part of the RS232 spec so that modems could tell the DTE that there was a good carrier. It is an output from a DCE. Its main use is in modem applications. Since both a pc and the empeg are DTE devices, they dont need that pin. With handshaking, it is kinda all or none. Using CTS would require using RTS aswell.
I dont have a sled with me, so I cant test the connections, but it seems that pin 1 and 8 are connected the way they are for some purpose other than serial communication.