The obvious that aurender 150 sounds cleaner/better than macbook headphone jack. Once when I was using only headphones, I doubted myself if I really hear the difference, blew 100$ for an audio switch just to see that my desktop setup is superior. There is lots of hype on head fi, but places like ASR push their own nonsense.
One thing I really noticed when needing to use a MacBook as a usb source into my RME ADI Pro DAC, I found a noticeable difference (improvement) in SQ when using the small inexpensive Wyred4Sound Recovery USB reclocker (powered with 9v batt supply, not the oem wall wart as it really sucks). Tried AQ Jitterbug (meh) and similar with no real noticeable effect but definitely did with the Recovery. I've A/B'd it on several friends systems and all noticed an improvement in SQ from a MacBook. It didn't beat an Aqua LinQ as a source but closer to a Bryston Pi. You might want to try that combo and see how it compares to the Aurender and if it improves the MacBook as a source. USB 1's & 0's from a MacBook is jittery, worse than I thought.
Granted I have the older RME Pro with the older jitter clock. The Recovery, using the orig DC wall was barely an improvement until I tried with a battery supply.
The Aurender N150 looks nice and good review you made.
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