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The 1/8" Mac jack...and even the iDevice jacks are surprisingly good for what they are. Most capable indeed. However, I've compared MBP, iPad, iPhone i/o to an Apogee Duet's 1/4" outs and there was no comparison. Even 16bit 22khz audio files sounded better, but most noticeable is the jump in quality of 16/44.1 or higher. It's not easy to describe in brief terms, but conspicuous is the quality of the preamp and how articulate and deep everything is without being too bright or in your face. To be cliche, it's like a veil was lifted.
If you're using the computer as media source for a HiFi stereo system with good everything the difference is glaring. That's how the trend goes with specialized individual audio components vs something like a laptop which has a DAC as an integrated function. Even a 20 year old Roland DA400 still sounds better (to me anyway) than most anything stock in contemporary computer/pda/smart devices.

I wouldn't digitize an entire music library without a devoted audio iface of sorts, but a few things here+there? Today's stock smart devices are more than suitable for casual use.

Oh absolutely--I've had both versions of the Apogee Ensemble and their converters are so, so good. If I had a convenient way to integrate that into my stereo setup, it'd be goddamn awesome

In the meantime it's in my office/studio hooked up to my Dynaudio monitors, and that setup never really fatigues my ears too bad. It's pretty great for casual listening, I've found.

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