How do I get analog audio from my apple TV 2nd generation?

Welcome to the Apple Community.

Yes the Apple TV outputs audio over HDMI and optical at the same time. Many DAC's should work, you might want to get one on trial or return.

Does your TV have RCA audio out on the back that you could run to the Onkyo?

I have a similar situation where my 16 year old Pioneer receiver has no optical audio inputs. I am using an optical toslink to analog stereo (RCA) converter, like the one from Monoprice.com (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10423&cs_id=1042302 &p_id=6884&seq=1&format=1#largeimage). You'll need a short optical audio cable (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10229&cs_id=1022901 &p_id=3395&seq=1&format=2) that will go from the Apple TV2 to the converter, then a standard R/L RCA cable to go from the converter to your receiver. I hope this helps!

I wouldn't worry too much about analogue, it basically starts out with the same quality as digital and is only degraded by long cables, magnetic fields, damaged cables etc etc, so you may not notice any difference at all. Indeed all audio is converted to analogue before it goes to the speakers anyway.

Winston Churchill wrote:

I wouldn't worry too much about analogue, it basically starts out with the same quality as digital and is only degraded by long cables, magnetic fields, damaged cables etc etc, so you may not notice any difference at all. Indeed all audio is converted to analogue before it goes to the speakers anyway.

It may all get converted to analogue but remember the quality of the analogue output stage in AppleTV is likely to be pretty poor compared to that in a decent DAC or internal stages in a dedicated AV receiver.

Thanks for the audio-out on the TV tip. That works great! I've been using my ATV2 via HDMI through my TV as my receiver is too old for HDMI. I then pipe both optical and analog back to my receiver which allows me to run zone B.