EAC C2 error correction, Use it or not? Options

[RiskyP]

My drive supports C2 error correction and I have been using it always since it gives the fastest rips for me, while still no errors are reported and all track qualities are above 99.5%. Using this option, I get rip speeds of 18x and I was wondering whether C2 error correction is really that reliable? I mean, I never get error messages, the track quality is always reported to be over 99.5% and I cannot hear any audible difference. Is there any incentive NOT to rip at 18x under these conditions?! Btw, my drive is a LiteOn 48x CDRW (I can't remember the model name off the top of my head)

[atici]

a) 990 not repeatable and detected by C2.
b ) 5 repeatable and detected by C2,
c) 5 not repeatable and not detected by C2.

I think terminologywise "consistent" is a better term here than "repeatable". There're also "D) consistent (repeating) errors that C2 could not detect" that I was referring to. I think they've just become a part of the CD.

The 5 b ) errors are detected, but not corrected, though EAC believes they are

I don't understand this. If EAC gets constant C2 errors no matter how many times it reads, wouldn't it go on indefinitely?
Or does it just give up even though C2 tells something is wrong after sufficiently many multiple reads?

With your logic applied to all sorts of errors, we come to the conclusion that "C2 off" should give a better, though sometimes inaccurate result. Because C2 does not help when it comes to errors of type B in which "C2 off" is totally blind but "C2 off" helps errors of type C. But wait isn't C2 also an error correction mechanism? Is there some B type errors that could be corrected with the help of C2 information?

There is an error detection, and correction, mechanism in audio CDs

Hmm, I've naively believed so far that as opposed to Data CDs, Audio CDs have no error detection/correction mechanism. That's why we had accurate rip problems. So what's the difference then? Is there more redundancy for error correction purposes in a Data CD (because it's always secure unless there're major errors)? I'll read the thread you gave, it seems very infomative but rather long