Perhaps it would be a good idea to start a link collection to useful sites providing information related to CD-Audio, ripping, error correction, ...
As first entry:
I have found a very interesting FAQ. It is the "Explanation of Terminology" FAQ of the "Feurio" program (a windows (audio-)rip and burn software): http://www.feurio.com/English/faq/faq_vocables.shtml.
For example I get confirmed in the "C2 Errors"-section that:
- the CIRS error correction is done at cd-drive level
(so probably no access to the parity data of the audio data).
- only certain dives report the location of incorrectable C2 errors.
- some drives do interpolation of erroneous (digital) audio data.
- some drives do jitter error correction.
There is also a list of drives with the information what they support:
http://www.feurio.com/English/cd_roms/