Does the MP utilize a ROM drive. If so, I was actually unaware of ROM drives incorporating error correction.
I believe that all or nearly all CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives will not perform error CONCEALMENT (i.e., interpolation), but I'm pretty certain that they do perform bit-perfect error CORRECTION when reading an audio CD (to the extent that it is possible to do so for the errors that occur), utilizing the error correcting codes that are on the CD. I'm not 100% certain, but I presume they do that to the same extent that a standalone player or transport would.
BTW, although the CIRC error correcting codes that are used on audio CD's are extremely powerful, as indicated in the thread I linked to in my previous post, those used for data CD's (as opposed to music CD's) are even more so, as might be expected.
Following is an excerpt from this old (1988!)
writeup on CD-ROM drives:
This first level error correction (the only type used for CD Audio data) is extremely powerful. The CD specification allows for discs to have up to 220 raw errors per second. Every one of these errors is (almost always) perfectly corrected by the CIRC scheme for a net error rate of zero. For example, our tests using Apple's CD-ROM drive (which also plays audio) show that raw error rates are around 50-100 per second these days. Of course, these are perfectly corrected, meaning that the original data is perfectly recovered. We have tested flawed discs with raw rates up to 300 per second. Net errors on all of these discs? Zero! I would expect a typical audio CD player to perform similarly. Thus I expect this raw error rate to have no audible consequences.
So why did I say "almost always" corrected above? Because a sufficiently bad flaw may produce uncorrectable errors. These very unusual errors are "concealed" by the player rather than corrected. Note that this concealment is likely to be less noticeable than even a single scratch on an LP. Such a flaw might be a really opaque finger smudge; CDs do merit careful handling. On the two (and only two) occasions I have found these, I simply sprayed on a little Windex glass cleaner and wiped it off using radial strokes. This restored the CDs to zero net errors.
Regards,
-- Al
