Stress relief for a power amp ? look advise, tks

Hi, If you have a power amp actually under stress and even potentially clipping due to a hard to manage speaker (electrostatic), would it be of any help to switch from a passive preamp (no gain) to an active preamp ? (that I have at hand)

My logic says no based on the fact that whatever is the active volume control position the power amp always works at full power, correct? Unique difference will be between a low volume clipping or a high volume clipping.

I could also play with gain reducing the CD output from actual 5 Volts (it is driving a passive and therefore no saturation) down to 2Volts to drive the active preamp but I do not think this will have any influence on a power amp stressed situation either.

Thanks for your advises