I have heard Avalons can be tough to drive...purely as a guess, I think its the extremely quality of your ML3s which is going the extra several miles to deliver every bit of 32 watts with untold power reserves to ensure those 32 watts are full 32 watts.
In other words, the ML3 have all the necessary peak dynamic range to make sure that, at 32 watts, the entire spectrum of dynamics in a piece is still played 'perfectly' within the proper dynamic peaks of the base 32 watts. That gives you a 'base volume' of 95db +/- (low level lawnmower?) setting aside listening distance, etc..and if the ML3 can allow for a musical dynamic range of 30db+/- you are in great shape!!