First, I am the distributor for CEC in the America's.
Since your CD player came on the market, there has been a major change in the design of laser pickups. This made a difference in the performance of CD transports across the board.
The idea that it is all one's and zero's, as a result all cd transports sound the same is not an accurate statement. The error correction used in transports is not all the same. Some transports with exotic error correction will nearly always play music, but is it what was originally recorded. NO and some audiophiles can hear this and don't appreciate it others do.
CEC transports use a belt drive system for the spindle this decreases the noise in the music. If you want to know more see the Audio Union web site.