I don't have the Spatials, but I do have speakers with high 90's dB sensitivity. And my Don Sachs preamp run at full gain into my Odyssey Kismet stereo amp (32dB of gain) has precisely the problem you're afraid of. The first click of the volume knob is plenty loud, and after that it gets a bit out of control. Luckily, my older version of the Don Sachs preamp has the gain control knobs, so I can dial back the preamp gain to match the amp, which also has the added benefit of minimizing the ground loop hum I get between the preamp and amp.
Many if not most amps are designed to around 26 dB of gain. But some amps juice it up a bit more, for example the Odyssey and also my TV system's Nuforce STA-200 amp (based on the Job/Goldmund circuit). On the other hand, First Watt amps are often somewhere between 10-20 dB. I tried the F7 a few years ago, and couldn't make it work in my system because my preamp at the time only had 9dB of gain and the amp only had 14 dB of gain, amounting to only 23 dB of total system gain. Even with volume maxed out, it wasn't loud enough with my 96 dB speakers at the time to produce satisfyingly realistic volume in my large-ish room.
What I'm hinting at with the above is that there's a reasonably estimable range of overall system gain that you should shoot for. Probably something like the range of 30-40 dB, given the 97 dB speakers you're dealing with. My guess is a passive preamp and a 26 dB amp *might* be enough if you don't like to listen at "live" volumes. But I wouldn't want to bank on that unless you have experience to know that it's enough for you. And likewise, I'm pretty confident a 12+ dB preamp and a 32 dB amp (44 dB total) would be too hot for those speakers and would result in what you fear in your original posts here. So, I personally would shoot somewhere in the lower- or mid-30's dB for total system gain given your stated moderate listening volumes. And having a preamp or amp where you can adjust gain would of course be very helpful to fine-tuning.
