Horn based loudspeakers why the controversy?

My daughter goes to a private boarding school that's got a fairly decent theater and church to perform in and they've got a full choir, a bell choir, a full orchestra, and several quartets. I've heard them all in the theater and the choir and quartet at the church. I've heard about a bunch of orchestras at the big theater down the road from me and at the Catholic college around the corner around the corner from the school I went to growing up. I'm fairly familier with what live music sounds like. My usual fair isn't classical or classical instruments. I grew up surrounded by people playing electric instruments all over the place. I've been to more live shows than I can count outdoor, in clubs, and arenas. 
I've never heard anything amplified over horns, be it an orchestra or some grungy punk act, that sounded anything like unamplified music. 
You guys are describing exactly what I'm hearing in horns, and absolutely hating. Horns always sound huge and enveloping and hyperdynamic which, to my ears, sounds obscenely synthetic. They take the sound of a mic a few feet away and amplify every single detail, then project it with unrealistic size and proportion unrealistic distances. 
Sure, it's exciting, but nothing about that sonic character has ever once caused me to mistake what I was hearing for synthetically reproduced sound. 
My friend is about to load up his living room with Klipsch horns and I've tried to describe what they're going to sound like and he thinks that sounds awesome. Good for him I suppose. I think he'll probably like them, too. 
The question to start was "why are horns controversial?". I genuinely hate most of what you people seem to love about them. That's the answer. 

I have NOT attended a chamber music concert that sounded small in scale or lacked startling dynamics.  But, I suppose that might be the case if one were sitting well back in a large hall (not they usual way I hear chamber works).

I believe " effortlessness " and " startling dynamics " are some of the qualities that live unamplified music brings to the listener, and ime, these qualities are captured, most honestly, by a good set of properly set up horns. Anyone not liking these qualities will not like horns. I completely disagree with kosst’s assessment, and agree with phusis that it is not " to each his own ". All live unamplified music, including kettle drums, have effortless dynamics, given one has the ability to sit close to the musicians. Enjoy ! MrD.

mrdecibel,
I agree with that description, in particular, the word "effortlessness." I have tried to understand for years why a horn would display that characteristic, and I can only assume that as some who know a lot more about it than I do have postulated that it is because of the way that a horn couples to the air. I have 2 good direct radiating speakers that I listen to occasionally, and each time I do, there is a something missing in the feeling of openness, that makes me feel that the music is "here" instead of "there."
I understand how personal these perceptions are, and that even if someone else perceived it in the same way as I do, they might not prefer it, but to me, it makes reproduced music sound more authentic in an important and very enjoyable way.

kosst,
I understand that you feel strongly and in a negative way about horns, but it seems to me that if you understood that human perception varies in what makes music sound real to an individual, you would feel less frustrated and (it seems) annoyed at listeners who enjoy horns.