Athos 10s have possibly the most beastly 10 inch pro driver for bass…not a problem…my guess is that 15 watt amp had an inferior output transformer….
Unlikely. My Ensemble Reference minimonitors at the time clearly had a sensitivity less than the Reference 3A monitors. You had to crank up the volume a few steps over the Reference 3As to achieve the same loudness.
Sensitivity of course depends on how it is measured. As you have pointed out, the Reference 3A with nominal 92 dB sensitivity have been measured to be of much lower actual sensitivity. That was by that Canadian institute that measures in an anechoic chamber. If there the actual sensitivity was more like 88 dB or so, then the actual sensitivity of the Ensemble monitors must have been even lower.
I also should mention that, while they only had a 5 inch midwoofer, they also had a rather large KEF passive radiator in the back, for a reasonable bass output. When touching it with your fingers while loud music was playing you could feel quite a substantial movement of physical mass.
Even with all that, all visitors, without exception, have commented positively on great dynamics (some testimonials are on my old system thread). So if those 15 W/ch amps could drive those speakers very dynamically, they must have been well constructed.
As others have pointed out, woofer size and nominal sensitivity don't tell the whole story. For example, the woofer of those problematic nominally 96 dB speakers may have been more reactive than the woofer in the Athos 10s. On the Athos website they point out that these speakers have been specifically designed for low reactivity.