First off, NO I am not getting paid to write this. I am just a tech-gear junkie and I came across this product today while looking through the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) product announcements.

And, the best new product at NAMM is the smallest one launched.

Dubbed the Groove by Apogee, it’s a packet of stick gum-sized (think: original Apple iPod Shuffle) amp that is specifically designed to connect to a laptop and provide you with 24 bit 92KHz audio quality — like four-times the quality coming out of a headphone (3.3 millimeter) jack on a laptop.

Connected via the USB 2.0 (or higher) port of a laptop of desktop computer, Groove is being marketed as a tiny DAC and headphone amp for listening to music on your Mac or PC. But, as ANY rental tech will tell you, PC audio is plagued with problem after problem when connected to either the house or to any staged system.

This tiny amp will be your biggest laptop audio problem solver — ever. No more lifting the ground or switching to Hi-Z, the Groove’s circuit design claims to provide an even distribution of output power across the audible frequency spectrum, correcting impedance imperfections.

Now, maybe you don’t care and maybe you’re happy with the “good-enough” quality coming from your laptop port, but I can guarantee that every single rental company will buy a handful of these and keep them in the truck on bring them to every single install.

Kudos to Apogee for launching the best product at NAMM!