[Chudalicious]

Being new to the world of good sound and empty wallets, I recently purchased AKG 702s and have a Heed Canamp with some Chord Cobra 3 RCAs on the way. That said, I plan on running this straight from my Apple TV (lossless) as I was told it would not be wise to connect via my Onkyo SR606 due to the dual volume control issue.

That said, do I need a DAC between the Apple TV and the Heed?

 

[krmathis]

Well, the Apple TV have a built in DAC.
An external DAC will most often benefit the sound in a positive way, but not needed since you can use the built in one.

 

[paaj]

you can use an RCA-splitter or a DAC with two RCA outputs to connect both at the same time. I've got a CI Audio VDA2 that does just that but there are many choices, depending on budget.

BTW, I don't know how the 606 built in DAC is, but you can just use an optical cable to use it. There is a 'zone 2 out' that might work as a normal line-out, and there is a tape-loop that basically outputs the incoming signal without amp/volume control. Experiment, that is the cheap way to start.