What does the signal chain look like and which components are involved?

I don't think a resistor in an attenuator will break, there are no high currents flowing through it. Whether this would result in maximum volume is something that someone who knows exactly how such attenuators are wired would have to answer.

If you don't want to place the attenuator at the ends because of a lack of strain relief, then I would just make sure to place the attenuator more towards the active monitor so that the unattenuated signal travels as much of the cable path as possible.

How long is the cable between the recording interface and the active monitor anyway? Probably less than 5 or even 3m. With such short cable lengths, I can't imagine there will be an audible difference. The higher signal levels in the studio area are designed so that cables can be up to 100m long.

I couldn't find a TRS adapter quickly. That's why I wanted to know exactly which devices are being used so I could see the connection options. If you can't find a TRS attenuator, you can also use TRS / XLR cables, unless you have invested in expensive cables or want to avoid these costs.

Another option, just In case you've already been thinking about the RME reference converters..

The most expensive, but feature wise probably the best solution could be to use one of the RME reference converters, which would offer additional interesting features with Auto Ref Level.

That's what I do, and so I can do without using attenuators. 4 reference levels and auto reflevel take care, that SNR and dynamic will be automatically kept on a higher level. You can view this Excel sheet to see what the effect of it:
https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/attachme … v004-xlsx/

The reference converters are connected digitally (ADAT, SPDIF or AES, it doesn't matter) and so the outputs can be set to 0dB. The devices reliably remember the last volume setting. In addition, the volume ramps up when headphones are plugged in and when switching between speakers and monitors. To be on the safe side, I have assigned mute all to an easily accessible button on the front, which you can reach without looking.
Those reference converters can easily be integrated into each setup if you have a digital output free:
https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/Ent … our-Setup/

No must have, only another option. Another reason why it would be useful to know your setup, to estimate whether such a device might be possible.