Every analog stage has overload conditions. So it really helps to understand the rough signal level (e.g. RMS Voltage) expected at each link in your chain, and to ensure you leave ample overload margin for the downstream component to handle that signal level (overload margins are often spec’d relative to a given RMS Voltage input level).
Digital sources these days often have very hot output (sometimes well in excess of 4 Volts on XLR outputs), and I wouldn’t worry about the using a well-implemented digital volume control (lots of bit depth, 64 or more bits and dithering) to keep the output levels reasonable, or just to do some L/R channel rebalancing for your system - as long as you’re not using it to attenuate TOO much.
Depending on the gain structure of your system, if you have too much gain and very sensitive speakers, sometimes it can help to have additional analog attenuation further downstream in order to push down the noise floor relative to signal.
