Passive preamp with integrated or headphone amp?

I am considering putting a passive preamp in front of my headphone amp to get
(1) finer volume adjustment levels;
(2) remote volume control.

Since there would be 2 gain controls in the chain, it would obviously hurt things somewhat (I guess). Has any one done this or have any thoughts? I was thinking of a Placette or similar one. If you have done this with an integrated amp using the volume-controlled-outputs, I would also be interested in the results, as this is basically the same thing.