I also like food analogy - imagine that you order famous Korean dish known for it salty and sour taste, but you cover it with sugar to your taste. Is it still original dish?
When I offer green tea to my friends they put two teaspoons of sugar into it. It is perfectly OK, but it isn't a green tea IMHO. You listen to clarinet, that produces only odd harmonics, thru amplifier that adds even harmonics (warm sound). Do you still listen to clarinet or your syropy version of it? You can do whatever you want - it is free country, but words "faithful reproduction" still mean something in both audio and food.
Pleasurably better, not measurably better
I have created a new phrase: pleasurably better.
I am giving it to the world. Too many technophiles are concerned with measurably better, but rarely talk about what sounds better. What gives us more pleasure. The two may lie at opposite ends of the spectrum.
I use and respect measurements all the time, but I will never let any one of them dictate to me what I actually like listening to.