Hi,
14,8sqm is a really tiny room for German living room. It doesn't make me wonder why they play so deep in your room and so loud. I wouldn't have even consider the speakers for that kind of room size, maybe a Virgo or a Tempo. I used mine in an 28sqm room.
I also think that they can play loud in bigger rooms but reducing the room gain through rising the room size they won't play that deep.
Stereophile simulates/emulates the bass as far as I understood this review.
"When I measured the big Harbeth's frequency response (See October, p.157, fig.3), it did appear that the speaker's bass response was elevated somewhat. But, as I went into in some detail in my
1999 article on measuring loudspeaker frequency response, not having access to a large, expensive anechoic chamber, I assess a loudspeaker's low-frequency response by measuring the drive-unit and port outputs in what is called the "nearfield";
ie, with the microphone capsule almost touching the radiator. First described by veteran speaker engineer Don Keele in 1973 (footnote 1), this technique gives a response that accurately reflects a loudspeaker's low-frequency output as assessed in the farfield, with the important caveat that, mathematically, it assumes that the loudspeaker's front baffle continues to infinity in all directions, which boosts the measured low-frequency response by up to 6dB. I have pondered over the years whether to apply a correction for this boost, but that correction will not be appropriate for any but very large rooms or anechoic chambers. In the end, I leave the curve uncorrected for this 2pi boost (which I did mention in the review text)."
https://www.stereophile.com/content/harbeth-m401-loudspeaker-ja-november-2008
About the sensitivity:
"This lack of energy—presumably due to destructive interference between the tweeter and midrange-unit outputs on this axis, which is 41" from the floor—would help explain why the Scorpio's measured sensitivity was lower than the specified figure."
https://www.stereophile.com/content/audio-physic-scorpio-loudspeaker-measurements
You can also see here:
606Scofig06.jpg that the speaker with room gain will play much deeper.