What is it I'm failing to grasp?

Went to live performance of Beach House over the weekend. I came away with the feeling I'm spoiled by my home system. And this is the exact sentiment I've had with all live performances I've experienced in last four or five years.

Sound reinforcement at most concerts not really very good, add in excessive volume and pretty poor venue acoustics, I get fatigued much sooner than at home. So, no, I don't want to replicate this sound quality at home. Acoustic concerts with minimal or no sound reinforcement and a good room, now I can listen to this much longer.

With sound reinforcement one is really listening to an AUDIO SYSTEM with live performers. Most of these systems are not built with audiophiles in mind. A number of years ago I saw Television at a small venue with my  audiophile buddy doing the sound reinforcement, now that was a good system! So yes, sound reinforcement can be audiophile quality, the masses couldn't give a hoot.

Tin eared at mixing boards, lousy pro audio equipment, excessive volume, poor acoustics at concert venue and  excessive crowd noise all detract from live experience. The masses don't attend live music for the sound quality, spectacle and fan worship are the calling cards for the large venue concerts.

Its really quite amazing I've actually experienced a number of good sounding rock concerts, there are a limited number of bands and sound guys that do care. Also, rather interesting these rare good sounding concerts were mostly from 1970's.

Small venue jazz and classical  have been far more consistently uniform in having at least decent sound quality in my experience. Genres like folk and bluegrass have been generally better than rock, not as consistent as jazz and classical.

I've never thought or characterized my system as sounding like live a event, instead it presents as artists performing in my room, far more intimate than any rock concert I've attended. With live jazz or pop vocalists recordings at smaller clubs my system presents as if I"m in the audience. If I only listened to these type recordings I'd be totally invested in believing my system sounds like live musical events. I don't like vast majority of live rock recordings, my system in no way presents illusion of myself in attendance at those concerts.

I find it difficult to believe any audio system could always be effortless listen. Not all musical instruments create effortless sound, For instance, trumpets can be biting, incisive, massed violins during crescendos can be piercing, snare drums can be sibilant, etc. So an effortless sounding system is certainly not accurate.

Add the wide variability of recording quality, which sometimes impacts real time evaluations of my system. Just last night I experienced this constantly changing, real time evaluations. Started off with pop vocalist recordings, most were of the live in studio type performance, my system was in effortless mode, then I went into some well recorded electronic music, Zero 7 shoe gaze, chill music, still effortless mode, then we go into some less well recorded edm music, some ok, then starts to get on my nerves, so go to Yes first album, better, but still lacking in naturalness, then go to some late 60's more commercial pop rock, pretty bad. So listening session sound variability last night went from sublime to pretty awful. I presume my system was being accurate in these different portrayals, certainly, effort was required on my part, at least some of the time.

Sometimes its hard to stay on point with an accurate system, in other words, lets say you play multiple mediocre recordings continuously over an hour or so. You may think to yourself system still needs work, but then you play high quality recording, suddenly your system becomes perfect!

Some years ago, I deluded myself I could create an audio system that could make virtually all recordings effortless. That system could certainly make some recordings sound simply beautiful, but over time I found myself subconsciously playing only certain kinds of music, couldn't handle complex, dense music with quick transients and pace. Over time I tired of that system and it's inability to play nice with the wide variety of music I listen to.

Ghdprentice spot on in voicing system. Reproduce the "real acoustic music"  with accuracy and everything falls into it's rightful place. Just don't expect your system to be effortless or even good all the time. Its a fact of life I love some music that's rather poorly recorded, and I will always continue to play it. Sometimes you just have to turn off the analytical part of brain with these recordings, otherwise the effort will overcome the pleasure.