I'm sorry but this is nonsense. Digital data on a Red Book CD is encoded with CIRC error correction, which provides an extra parity byte for every 3 data bytes

I'm sorry but this is nonsense. Digital data on a Red Book CD is encoded with CIRC error correction, which provides an extra parity byte for every 3 data bytes. In normal operation, the recovery of the digital data is 100%. The DAC receives a stream of 1s and 0s, there is no "clearer eye pattern" for it to "interpret". The data is read or it is not. If it is not, the error is corrected. If it is uncorrectable, for example if there is a particularly large scratch, then - and only then - an attempt will be made to "guess" the signal. Unless the CD is scratched, a 20$ computer optical drive with digital SPDIF output will be completely indistinguishable to a DAC than a drive costing 100x as much. The "tracking stability" you mention in the newer model is simply a larger buffer, so that it has time to recover the read.